Recipient of the Strategic Play Global Golden Brick Award:
2024 Play Champion!
Dr. Stuart Brown is the Founder of the National Institute for Play. He has a long career dedicated to the study of play in humans. In 1966, as a young assistant professor of psychiatry, he became a member of the Tower Commission, which was tasked with studying and understanding the motivations of Charles Whitman, the Texas Tower Sniper. The group unanimously concluded there is a significant link between play deprivation and inclination towards violent behavior.
Dr. Brown continued to study the link between play deprivation and future dysfunction, and then went on to study play in animals as part of a National Geographic study lasting several years. He has completed over 5000 reviews of play histories of a wide variety of individuals, and his findings show that an individual's play experiences have a profound impact on their overall life. He co-taught for 10 years at Stanford D.school and has worked with many large companies to help them learn the link between creativity and productivity.
In 2009, he published Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. Play science is now an emerging discipline with interest from a wide academic range. He hopes one day that play will be recognized in equal importance alongside sleep, hygiene, and nutrition.
Join the Strategic Play Global Team as we thank Dr. Brown for his years of dedication and send out a big congratulations!