Todd Rose

L. Todd Rose (born November 28, 1974) is the co-founder and president of the Center for Individual Opportunity and a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is a scientist in developmental psychology known for his work applying dynamical systems principles to the study of development, intelligence, and learning, and for his contributions to the field of Mind, Brain, and Education (Educational Neuroscience). His current focus is in the area of the Science of the Individual, with an emphasis on applying insights about individuality to issues of human potential, talent development, and the design of social institutions. He is the author of Square Peg and The End of Average.

Rose was born in Ogden, Utah (1974). He has stated publicly that he struggled in school from an early age, and that he dropped out of Layton High School his senior year (1993). In 1995, after being on welfare and working multiple minimum wage jobs to support his wife and two children, he obtained his GED and started attending night classes at a local college. Rose eventually received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Weber State University (2000), as well as a Master's degree in Mind, Brain, and Education (2001) and a Doctorate in Human Development (2007) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he worked with notable psychologist Kurt W. Fischer. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Laboratory for Visual Learning at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2008).

In an excerpt from the book, Rose relates that in the 1940s, after multiple flying accidents, the US Air Force required adjustable airplane cockpit equipment when measurements revealed zero pilots were in the average range of 10 body measurements from a population of 4,063 pilots. The measurements revealed that with only three of the ten size measurements, neck circumference, thigh circumference and wrist circumference, fewer than 3.5 per cent of pilots would fit within the average sizes on the three measurements. If a cockpit was designed for an average pilot, the cockpit fit no pilot. Rose's TEDx talk, "The Myth of Average", communicates the basic principles of the science of the individual and show how its findings can be harnessed by parents, teachers, managers, and individuals to improve performance.

To advance research into the science of the individual and use its findings to influence educational and management policies, Rose co-founded the Center for Individual Opportunity (CIO), a 501c3 nonprofit. The CIO encourages educators, businesses, and the public to support the design of more effective learning environments, improve methods for identifying, developing, and rewarding employee talent, and lay down more pathways leading to individual success.

• Rose, Todd (2013). Square Peg: My Story and What it Mean for Raising Innovators, Visionaries, and Out of the Box Thinkers. New York, NY. Hachette Books. ISBN 9781401324278,
• Rose, Todd (2015). The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness. New York, NY. HarperOne. ISBN 9780062358387.

• Rose, L. T., Rouhani, P., & Fischer, K. W. (2013). The science of the individual. Mind, Brain, and Education, 7(3), 152-158.
• Rose, L.T., & Fischer, K.F. (2011). Garbage in, garbage out: Having useful data is everything. Measurement, 9, 222-226.
• Rose, L.T., Daley, S.G., & Rose, D.H. (2011). Let the questions be your guide: MBE as interdisciplinary science. Mind, Brain, and Education, 5(4), 153-162.
• Rose, L.T., & Fischer, K.W. (2011). The dynamics of childhood intelligence. In R.J. Sternberg & S.B. Kaufman (Eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Rose, L.T., & Fischer, K.W. (2009). Dynamic systems theory. In R. Shweder, T. Bidell, A. Dailey et al. (Eds.), The child: An encyclopedic companion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Rose, L.T., & Fischer, K.W. (2009). Dynamic development: A neo-Piagetian approach. In U. Mueller, J.M. Carpendale, & Smith, L. (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Piaget, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Schneps, M.H., Rose, L.T., Martinez-Conde, S., & Pomplun, M. (2009). Covert orienting reflex: Involuntary pupil response predicts microsaccade production. Vision, 9(8), 399.
• Schneps, M.H., Rose, L.T., & Fischer, K.W. (2007). Visual learning and the brain. Mind, Brain, and Education, 1(3), 128-139.
• Fischer, K.W., & Rose, L.T., & Rose, S. (2007). Growth cycles of mind and brain: Analyzing developmental pathways of learning disorders. In K.W. Fischer, J.H. Bernstein, & Immordino-Yang, M.H. (Eds.), Mind, Brain, & Education in Reading Disorders. Cambridge University Press.
• Paré-Blagoev, E. J., Cestnick, L., Rose, L.T., Clark, J., Misra, M., Katzir-Cohen, T., & Poldrack, R. (2002). The neural basis of phonological awareness in normal-reading children examined using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Journal Of Cognitive Neuroscience, F53, 159.
• Fischer, K.W., & Rose, L.T. (2001). Webs of skill: How students learn. Educational Leadership, 59, 6-12.
• McVaugh, W., Mabrey, I., & Rose, L.T. (2000). Learning styles and knowledge learned in web and traditional college courses. International Journal of Psychology, S35, 247.

He and his family live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.