Steven Johnson to give USI 50th Anniversary Fall Academic Lecture

Steven Johnson, bestselling author and host of the PBS six-part series: How We Got to Now, will present USI's 50th Anniversary Fall Academic Lecture at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, September 15, 2015, in Carter Hall in University Center West. The event is free and open to the public.

Johnson is the author of bestsellers, How We Got to Now and Where Good Ideas Come From. His writings have influenced everything from cutting-edge ideas in urban planning to the battle against 21st-century terrorism.

He was chosen by Prospect magazine as one of the Top Ten Brains of the Digital Future. His work on the history of innovation inspired the six-part PBS series How We Got to Now. As the host of the series, he explores the power and legacy of great ideas, why and how ideas happen, and their sometimes unintended results. He later created How We Get to Next, a project, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Knight Foundation, which collects and develops news and ideas about the future that innovators are creating.

Johnson's most popular work on innovation is the bestselling Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. Others titles, written or edited by Johnson, include The Innovator's Cookbook, The Invention of Air, The Ghost Map, Everything Bad Is Good For You, Emergence, and Future Perfect.

Johnson also co-created three influential websites: the online magazine FEED, the community site, Plastic.com, and the media site outside.in.

He is a contributing editor to Wired magazine and has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, and other periodicals. He's appeared on television programs such as The Charlie Rose Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. His blog can be found at stevenberlinjohnsonc.com.

For more information contact Mark Krahling at 812-464-1811 or mkrahling@usi.edu.