David Radcliffe is the Epistemology Professor of Engineering Education in the newly formed School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. He is playing a leading role in shaping the strategic direction of the School as it continues to grow and to influence the future direction of engineering education and scholarship.
Dr Radcliffe conducts research-in-practice in the places where engineers work and learn using the approach of contingent immersion with a focus on design thinking, learning histories, knowledge creation, innovation, sustainability, competence formation and new practices in engineering. This work is interdisciplinary and has multi-national and multi-cultural dimensions. A particular focus of this research is the design of creative learning places and ways to foster distributed communities of research practice in engineering education using cyber-infrastructure.
Until mid-2007, David was the Thiess Professor of Engineering Education and Professional Development in the School of Engineering at the University of Queensland and foundation Director of the Catalyst Research Centre for Society and Technology at that institution.
David was the Inaugural National Teaching Fellow, Australia, 1995 and a Boeing Welliver Fellow in the 1999, the first from Australia. He is a Fellow, of the Institution of Engineers, Australia and a Past President of the Australasian Association of Engineering Education.