Dr. John T. Bruer

Biography

John T. Bruer was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and earned his B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He attended Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar, earning a B. Phil. in Philosophy and then received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Rockefeller University. His research interests include cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, education, and history and philosophy of science. Bruer is currently President of the James S McDonnell Foundation in St. Louis, Missouri.

After receiving his Ph.D in 1978, Bruer worked as a program officer as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation. At those foundations, he implemented and administered programs in tropical disease research, epidemiology, medical informatics, and applications of cognitive science to medical problem solving. Since joining the McDonnell Foundation in 1986, the foundation has initiated new programs in cognitive neuroscience, applications of cognitive science to education and rehabilitation, analysis of complex systems, and cancer biology. He is an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Washington University and serves on numerous advisory panels nationally and internationally.

He is the author of Schools for Thought: A Science of Learning in the Classroom (MIT Press, 1993), which won the 1993 Quality in Educational Standards Award from the American Federation of Teachers and the 1994 Charles S. Grawemeyer Award in Education. His book The Myth of the First Three Years (Free Press, 1999) was named the Outstanding Book in Developmental Psychology by the American Psychological Association in 2000. He has co-edited three other books and authored or co-authored over 50 scholarly and popular articles.

Bruer was appointed to the National Science Board in 2006 and chairs the Education and Human Resources Committee.

August 2008