Jeff Lindsay (engineer)
Jeffrey Dean Lindsay is a business consultant, author, apologist, chemical engineer and patent agent who received attention defending The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on his website and blog. He is the lead author of Conquering Innovation Fatigue: Overcoming the Barriers to Personal and Corporate Success (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2009), which shortly after publication in June 2009 was named by BusinessWeek as one of its top 20 new book recommendations for summer reading. Prior to his current professional position as Director of Solution Development at Innovation Edge, he was Corporate Patent Strategist and Senior Research Fellow at Kimberly-Clark Corporation in Neenah, Wisconsin, as well as an Associate Professor at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. He is also Chair of the Forest Bioproducts Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Brigham Young University, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow. He currently lives in China.
LDS apologetics
Apart from his professional activities, he is also known for his writings dealing with the purported plausibility of the Book of Mormon and to a lesser extent for his work in Mormon history, in particular responding to various statements from anti-Mormon sources and frequently asked questions AbOUT the LDS Church.
Lindsay has written an article Does DNA Evidence Refute the Book of Mormon?, in which he concluded that many Latter-day Saints incorrectly assumed that Lehi's group was The Primary genetic source for all Native Americans and recommended that such errant assumptions be abandoned. Additionally, he noted that the Book of Mormon does not make such claims regarding Lehi and therefore only encourages a more enlightened view rather than complete abandonment of the Book of Mormon.
Lindsay's work in Mormon history has attracted the attention of various Mormon research groups, including the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies.
Some of Lindsay's claims have been criticized. For example, Richard Abanes, a writer critical of Mormonism, refers to Lindsay's work as "numerous self-published articles, not scholarly, extremely biased, articles often based on misinformation". Some LDS people also disagree with some of Lindsay's viewpoints.
Lindsay has no formal education in molecular biology, Mormon history, or several of the other topics he explores on his website.
Professional career
Since 2007, Lindsay has served as Chair of the Forest Bioproducts Division (formerly the Forest Products Division) of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). The Division "promotes knowledge sharing and networking on topics dealing with products (materials, chemicals, and energy) obtained from forest resources and other lignocellulosic materials" and deals with "pulp and paper, forest products and associated industries, bio-based composites, biomass processing, biorefineries and a variety of other products and processes." Lindsay has been involved in various leadership roles with the Division since his days as a faculty member (Assistant and later Associate Professor) at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology on the Georgia Tech Campus (originally the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wisconsin), where he was employed from 1987 to 1994.
Lindsay has published more than 50 technical papers, including several dealing with the use of fluid dynamics in the paper and pulp industry for the Tappi Journal by the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry. In his previous position at Kimberly-Clark he was also an inventor, co-listed on more than 100 United States patents filed for his employer, in the fields of chemical treatments of cellulose, RFID-related products, personal care products and paper engineering.
Lindsay currently works as Director of Solution Development at Innovation Edge, a consulting firm in Neenah, Wisconsin.
Lindsay's book, Conquering Innovation Fatigue, is co-authored with Cheryl Perkins, CEO and President of Innovationedge, and with Mukund Karanjikar, formerly of Chevron Energy Ventures and currently with Technology Holding LLC, a Salt Lake City firm seeking breakthrough energy solutions. The book is supported by a blog, InnovationFatigue.com.
Lindsay is also program chair for PIMA (Paper Industry Management Association) for their 2010 PaperCon conference (Atlanta, May 2â5, 2010).
Lindsay is an outspoken critic of block scheduling in North American secondary schools. His writings and other information posted on his website have been used as a resource by those seeking to promote or stop the introduction of block scheduling in their school. His Website on block scheduling was also noted by the Washington Post in 2008.
Lindsay is also noted for writings and website pages on the Hmong people in the United States. An essay about the reasons for the Hmong presence in the United States has been published by Future Hmong magazine. In 2008, he was quoted by The Christian Science Monitor in an article on the Hmong.
See also
- Bloggernacle
- Blogs about Mormons and Mormonism
External links
- JeffLindsay.com, Lindsay's website
- InnovationFatigue.com, the blog for Lindsay's book