Jeff Lindsay

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This article is about the professional engineer. For the fiction writer, see Jeff Lindsay (writer).

Jeffrey Dean Lindsay is a business consultant, chemical engineer and patent agent[1] who received attention defending The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on his blog. Prior to his current professional position as Director of Solution Development at Innovation Edge, he was Corporate Patent Strategist and Senior Research Fellow at Kimberly-Clark Corporation in Neenah, Wisconsin, as well as an Associate Professor at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. He is also Chair of the Forest Bioproducts Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Brigham Young University, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow.

Contents

[edit] Career

Apart from his professional activities, he is also known for his writings dealing with the purported plausibility of the Book of Mormon and to a lesser extent for his work in Mormon history, in particular responding to various statements from anti-Mormon sources and frequently asked questions about the LDS Church.

Lindsay has written an article Does DNA Evidence Refute the Book of Mormon?, in which he concluded that many Latter-day Saints incorrectly assumed that Lehi's group was the primary genetic source for all Native Americans and recommended that such errant assumptions be abandoned. Additionally, he noted that the Book of Mormon does not make such claims regarding Lehi and therefore only encourages a more enlightened view rather than complete abandonment of the Book of Mormon.[2]

Lindsay's work in Mormon history has attracted the attention of various Mormon research groups, including the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies.

Some of Lindsay's claims have been criticized. [3] For example, Richard Abanes, a writer critical of Mormonism, refers to Lindsay's work as "numerous self-published articles, not scholarly, extremely biased, articles often based on misinformation".[4] Some LDS people also disagree with some of Lindsay's viewpoints. [5]

Lindsay has no formal education in molecular biology, Mormon history, or several of the other topics he explores on his website.

[edit] Professional work

Since 2007, Lindsay has served as Chair of the Forest Bioproducts Division (formerly the Forest Products Division) of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). The Division "promotes knowledge sharing and networking on topics dealing with products (materials, chemicals, and energy) obtained from forest resources and other lignocellulosic materials" and deals with "pulp and paper, forest products and associated industries, bio-based composites, biomass processing, biorefineries and a variety of other products and processes."[6] Lindsay has been involved in various leadership roles with the Division since his days as a faculty member (Assistant and later Associate Professor) at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology on the Georgia Tech Campus (originally the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wisconsin), where he was employed from 1987 to 1994.

Lindsay has published more than 50 technical papers, including several dealing with the use of fluid dynamics in the paper and pulp industry for the Tappi Journal by the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry.[1] In his previous position at Kimberly-Clark he was also an inventor, co-listed on more than 100 United States patents filed for his employer, in the fields of chemical treatments of cellulose, RFID-related products, personal care products and paper engineering.[7]

Lindsay currently works as Director of Solution Development at Innovation Edge, a consulting firm in Neenah, Wisconsin.

Lindsay is an outspoken critic of block scheduling in North American secondary schools. His writings[8] and other information posted on his website have been used as a resource by those seeking to promote or stop the introduction of block scheduling in their school.[9] His Website on block scheduling was also noted by the Washington Post in 2008.[10]

Lindsay is also noted for writings and Website[11] on the Hmong people in the United States. An essay about the reasons for the Hmong presence in the United States has been published by Future Hmong magazine.[12] In 2008, he was quoted by The Christian Science Monitor in an article on the Hmong.[13]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ a b "Resume for Jeff Lindsay" (SHTML). jefflindsay.com. http://jefflindsay.com/resume4.shtml. Retrieved on 2006-07-06. 
  2. ^ Jeffrey D. Lindsay. "Does DNA Evidence Refute the Book of Mormon?". lds.org. http://www.lds.org/newsroom/mistakes/0,15331,3885-1-18078,00.html. Retrieved on 2006-06-24.  A more recent version of his paper can be found on his web site.
  3. ^ For an example of a point-by-point dealing with some of Lindsay's points, see this blog entry from exmormon.org
  4. ^ Richard Abanes. One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church. ISBN 1568582838. http://books.google.com/books?id=Iy-F3Dg3LccC&pg=PA616&lpg=PA616&dq=jeff+lindsay&sig=WtncZxe9fuVQVUJ3V2cVPy5tFlo. Retrieved on 2006-07-17. 
  5. ^ For example, LDS member Mel Tungate, a noted student of Mormon history, has written : "Please note that Jeff Lindsay has written an unkind rebuttal of this ( Steve LeSueur's ) book, and I fully dismiss Lindsay's work here as almost totally inaccurate." Mel Tungate. "LDS Missouri Period". www.tungate.com. http://www.tungate.com/Missouri_1838.htm. Retrieved on 2006-07-08. 
  6. ^ "Forest Bioproducts Division." AIChE.org, http://www.aiche.org/DivisionsForums/ViewAll/FP.aspx, retrieved June 16, 2008.
  7. ^ For a more complete list see search results for patents and published pending patent applications for Jeffrey Lindsay in Wisconsin.
  8. ^ Most notably, The Case Against Block Scheduling, a page which as of Jan. 7, 2006 is the number 1 hit on Google for a search of the term "block schedule" and number 2 for "block schedule".
  9. ^ For example, Lincoln County Schools: Policies and Issues identified information acquired on Lindsay's website as helping eliminate block scheduling at Lincoln County schools ("The Shillalah scoops the News-Times" (March 21, 1999). Shillalah (Waldport High School student newspaper). See section titled "LCSD philosophy and practice regarding libraries and literacy," 2nd paragraph.
  10. ^ Mathews, Jay. Class Schedulers Think Outside the Blocks. Washington Post, March 10, 2008, p. B01. Retrieved June 1, 2008.
  11. ^ Lindsay, J. "The Hmong in America: A Story of Tragedy and Hope", http://www.jefflindsay.com/Hmong_tragedy.html. Retrieved June 15, 2008. As of June 15, 2008, this Website is among the top 4 returns for the search string "Hmong" on Google.
  12. ^ Lindsay, J. "Why the Hmong Are in America." FutureHmong, June 2002, pp. 14-15.
  13. ^ Kehe, Marjorie. A Hmong Refugee Finds Power in the Written Word. The Christian Science Monitor, June 16, 2008. Retrieved June 29, 2008. Lindsay's comments are quoted on page 3 of the online article.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Lindsay"
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