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Monday, 1 May 2006
The Arc of Invention: Anticipation, to Canonical Inventor, to Exponential Growth
John Lienhard, Distinguished Professor, College of Engineering, University of Houston
John Lienhard will preview ideas from his forthcoming book, How Invention Begins: Echoes of Old Voices in the Rise of New Machines (June 2006). The session will explore the peculiar way in which invention first builds toward a finished technology, then causes that technology to improve at an exponential rate.
Speaker Profile
John H. Lienhard, author and voice of The Engines of Our Ingenuity, is the M.D. Anderson Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering and History at the University of Houston. He received BS and MS degrees from Oregon State College and the University of Washington, his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, and he holds two honorary doctorates. He is known for his research in the thermal sciences as well as in cultural history. He is an Honorary Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
