ThinkWorks News

Cornell University Features Founder's Research

July 17th, 2008

Ithaca, NY - A recent study which surveyed almost 300 Cornell faculty across the campus was featured on the Cornell web site today. The three most important world problems identified by faculty across disciplines were climate change, corporate influence on governing and a "lack of long-term perspective in political, environmental and social actions."

The study also revealed the most important problem that could be solved easily is insufficient education in science, critical thinking and environmental issues.

Derek Cabrera, CEO of Thinkworks and the research team leader, believes that these results reinforce his long term position that today's educational institutions must focus their efforts on thinking skills. "These world class scientists identified over 100 major crises humanity faces," Cabrera explained, "They categorized these crises into clusters like 'the environment', 'health', 'political', etc. But underlying these crises and their categories is a root crisis--the current state of our thinking." Cabrera continued, "we must develop essential thinking skills to meet the challenges that our society faces today and in the future."

A pre-print edition of the article is available online.