Joe Sinfield, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, has been named Director of the College of Engineering Innovation and Leadership Studies Program. This program includes Engineering's Innovation and Leadership Minor for undergraduates in any major in Engineering, a graduate-level research component to fuel the program with research-derived insights into repeatable patterns of innovation success, and a service component to help enhance the innovation efforts of units and organizations across the campus.

Dr. Sinfield's research, teaching and professional activities are concentrated in two focal areas: 1) innovation management, particularly in the context of intrapreneurship, entrepreneurship, and engineering education, and 2) experimental methods, instrumentation, and sensor design.  Joe brings 17 years of experience in the formal study and pursuit of innovation to his new role.  Prior to Purdue he spent nearly six years as a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company, where he worked in the corporate strategy and innovation and technology management practices.  He then pursued an entrepreneurial venture with Innosight, LLC, where he has held the role of Senior Partner for the past twelve years. Innosight is now a global innovation consulting and investment firm based in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Dr. Sinfield is a frequent speaker on the management principles that can be employed to more predictably drive innovation and serves on the innovation advisory boards of multiple companies, including the TPT Scientific Advisory Board of Procter & Gamble. He is the co-author of The Innovator’s Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work (Harvard Business Press, 2008), and has published in business periodicals such as Harvard Business Review, Marketing Management, IndustryWeek, BusinessWeek online, Forbes.com, and Financial Executive, as well as in an array of peer-reviewed journals including MIT’s Sloan Management Review,  IEEE Systems Journal,  Journal of Engineering Entrepreneurship, and the International Journal of Innovation Science.

Dr. Sinfield received a B.S. degree in civil engineering summa cum laude, from Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, and M.S. and Sc.D. degrees in civil and environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. He also worked as a geotechnical engineer at Haley & Aldrich in Cambridge, Massachusetts early in his career.