John H. Falk is a leading figure in free-choice learning, museum research, and science education in the United States. Currently, he holds the position Sea Grant Professor of Free-Choice Learning at Oregon State University (OSU) and Director, OSU Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning. He was founder and, for twenty years, Director of the Institute for Learning Innovation in Annapolis, Maryland, and held several high-level positions during his fourteen years at the Smithsonian Institution. Falk earned a joint doctorate in Biology and Education from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of over one hundred scholarly articles and chapters in the areas of biology, psychology, and education, and author or editor of numerous books, including, as author, of Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience; as co-author, with Lynn Dierking, of The Museum Experience, Learning from Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning, and Lessons without Limit: How Free-Choice Learning Is Transforming Education; and as co-author, with Beverly Sheppard, of Thriving in the Knowledge Age: New Business Models for Museums and Other Cultural Institutions.Free-Choice Science Education: How We Learn Science Outside of School is one of the many books he's edited. Falk received a 2010 John Cotton Dana Award for Leadership from the American Association of Museums, the highest honor bestowed upon someone from outside the museum field who exhibits outstanding leadership and promotes the educational responsibility and capacity of museums.
Lynn D. Dierking is Sea Grant Professor in Free-Choice Learning, College of Science, and Interim Associate Dean for Research, College of Education at Oregon State University. Dierking earned a doctorate in Science Education from the University of Florida in 1987. Her research focuses on lifelong learning, particularly free-choice, out-of-school time learning (in after-school, home-, community-based, and cultural contexts), with an emphasis on youth, families, and community, particularly those from poor and/or historically under-represented groups. Dierking has published extensively and serves on editorial boards for the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, the Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship, and Afterschool Matters. Along with John Falk, she created the Science Learning in Everyday Life section of the journal Science Education, which she co-edited with him for over a decade. In addition to books she has written with Falk, she also has co-authored/co-edited three other books-Questioning Our Assumptions from the Start: An Introduction to Front-End Studies in Museums, Collaboration: Critical Criteria for Success, and The Handbook of Small Science Centers. Dierking received a 2010 John Cotton Dana Award for Leadership from the American Association of Museums, the highest honor bestowed upon someone outside the museum field who exhibits outstanding leadership and promotes the educational responsibility and capacity of museums.