Brad Lister

Director, Anderson Center for Innovation in Undergraduate Education
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, New York,
UNITED STATES

Biography

Brad Lister is Director of the Anderson Center for Innovation in Undergraduate Education and Research Professor of Biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He received his undergraduate degree from Tufts University and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. As director of the Anderson Center, an internationally recognized incubator for curriculum reform, Brad works with leaders throughout higher education, K-12, and industry to create scaleable, economical methods for improving education. He has been an invited speaker at numerous symposia on education and technology including recent presentations at the Stanford Conference on Learning from the Net, the keynote address at the IBM Global Learning Colloquium, and the plenary talk at the International Congress on Education and Technology in San Jose, Costa Rica. He has served as a consultant for Lucent Global Learning Solutions and for educational projects in several countries throughout the world including Mexico, Venezuela, Canada, and Great Britain. He is currently working with Project Kaleidoscope, the National Science Foundation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Ministry of Education to create a partnership for the sharing of best practices in science education between the United States and China. At the Anderson Center, Brad directs several interdisciplinary research projects that integrate cognitive science with classroom practice. Under grants from AT&T, General Electric, and the National Science Foundation, the Anderson Center is analyzing the effects of learning styles on student performance, the impact of ubiquitous computing on resident undergraduate education, and the transfer of learning between foundational and higher level courses in math, science, and engineering. Besides conducting basic research on education, Brad also created the 80/20 Model for interactive distance learning, which was adopted by Lucent Technologies for its world-wide education network, and the Next Generation Studio model which forms the foundation for Rensselaer’ s award-winning teaching and learning environment. Next Generation Studio (NGS) courses combine the proven benefits of interactive teaching with the power and flexibility of online learning. With his colleague Carl McDaniel, and partners at Thomson Publishing, the BBC, WGBH TV, and the University of California, Brad is currently developing content for "Biology: An Interactive Exploration" , a ground breaking NGS course that aims to create a long overdue revolution in life sciences education.