Anthony Peter "Tony" Buzan (; 2 June 1942 – 13 April 2019) was an English author and educational consultant. Buzan popularised the idea of mental literacy, radiant thinking, and a technique called

mind mapping A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information into a hierarchy, showing relationships among pieces of the whole. It is often created around a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank page, to which associated r ...

, inspired by techniques used by

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

, and

Joseph D. Novak Joseph Donald Novak (born 1932) is an American educator, and Professor Emeritus at the Cornell University, and Senior Research Scientist at the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition. He is known for his development of concept mapping in t ...

's "

concept map A concept map or conceptual diagram is a diagram that depicts suggested relationships between concepts. Concept maps may be used by instructional designers, engineers, technical writers, and others to organize and structure knowledge. A conce ...

ping" techniques.Corcoran, Leonie (2015)
How Tony Buzan used mind maps to doodle his way to millions
, ''

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'', 1 June 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2018

Early life

Buzan was born in

Palmers Green Palmers Green is a suburban area and electoral ward in North London, England, within the London Borough of Enfield. It is located within the N13 postcode district, around north of Charing Cross. It is home to the largest population of Greek Cy ...

Enfield Enfield may refer to: Places Australia * Enfield, New South Wales * Enfield, South Australia ** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb ** Enfield High School (South Australia) ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

, and was an alumnus of

Kitsilano Secondary School , motto_translation = Let There Be Light , staff = 121 , founded = 1917 , schoolboard = School District 39 Vancouver , superintendent = Scott Robinson , director = Magdalena Kassis (Director ...

in Vancouver. His brother is the academic

Barry Buzan Barry Gordon Buzan, FBA, FAcSS (born 28 April 1946) is a British political scientist. He is an Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and a honorary professor at the University of Copenhagen and Jilin ...

. Buzan completed his undergraduate studies in psychology, English, mathematics and science at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

, and was a charter student at

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...

in 1965–66 where he spent a year as a graduate student and the inaugural president of the

Simon Fraser Student Society The Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) is the students' union of Simon Fraser University in Metro Vancouver, Canada. It was founded after the opening of Simon Fraser University in 1967. The SFSS consists of over 26,000 students with an annual bu ...

. During his time at SFU, Buzan became very involved in Mensa, going on to become editor of the ''International Journal of Mensa''.

Career

He was a promoter of

mnemonic A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding. Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imag ...

systems and

mind map A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information into a hierarchy, showing relationships among pieces of the whole. It is often created around a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank page, to which associated r ...

ping techniques. He launched his own software programme to support mind mapping called iMindMap in December 2006 with Welsh entrepreneur, Chris Griffiths. The Buzan Organisation holds trademarks on the phrase " Mind Map" in the context of self-improvement educational courses in the UK, the USA and Germany. The trademark does not appear in the records of the

Canadian Intellectual Property Office The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO; French: ''Office de la propriété intellectuelle du Canada, OPIC'') is responsible for the administration and processing of the greater part of intellectual property (IP) in Canada. CIPO's areas ...

. Following his 1970s series ''Use Your Head'' for the BBC,Saeed, Saeed (2013)
Tony Buzan on how 'the brain works on images'
, ''The National'', 12 March 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2018 many of his ideas were set down in a series of five books: ''Use Your Memory'', ''Master Your Memory'', ''Use Your Head'', ''The Speed Reading Book'' and ''The Mind Map Book''. He was author or co-author of more than 80 books altogether.Lantin, Barbara (2000)
Simple - it's all in the mind
, ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'', 24 October 2000. Retrieved 30 November 2018 His five BBC books had, by 2003, sold over 3 million copies. As a popular psychology author, Tony Buzan wrote on subjects relating to the brain, "genius quotient (GQ)", spiritual intelligence, memory, creativity and speed reading. He was the founder and President of the Brain Foundation (not to be confused with various medical-related bodies with the same name) and also the Brain Trust Charity, the World Memory Championships and the World Championships of the Brain. He was a co-founder of London's

Mind Body Spirit Festival The Mind Body Spirit Festival is a festival that first took place at the Olympia Exhibition Centre in London in 1977. It was founded by Graham Wilson, together with Terry Ellis, and is now under the stewardship of Melvyn Carlile and Josh Rober ...

as well as the Mind Sports Olympiad, and World Brain Day. He died aged 76 at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford of a heart attack.

Selected bibliography

* ''Spore One – Structure in Hyperspace'', 25 September 1972, * ''Use Your Head'', January 1974, * ''Speed Memory'', 27 January 1977, * ''Make the Most of Your Mind'', February 1984, * ''Speed Reading'', 20 May 1971, * ''Use Your Perfect Memory'', Plume Penguin Group, January 1991, * ''Use Both Sides of Your Brain'', Plume Penguin Group, Jan 1991, * ''The Mind Map Book'', 6 September 1993, * ''Concordea'', December 2006 * ''Requiem For Ted'', December 2006 * ''Use Your Memory'', BBC Publications, * ''Master Your Memory'', BBC Publications, * ''The Memory Book'', BBC Publications, 2010, * ''Mind Maps for Business'', BBC Publications, 2010, * ''Brain Training for Kids'', Proactive Press, 2012, * ''The Most Important Graph in the World'', Proactive Press, 2012, * ''Modern Mind Mapping for Smarter Thinking e-book'', Proactive Press, March 2013

References

External links

* *
Open2.net Biography
OpenLearn/Open University.
IOctopus mindmaps
Mind mapping service based on the Tony Buzan principle. {{DEFAULTSORT:Buzan, Tony English non-fiction writers University of British Columbia alumni People from Palmers Green Popular psychology 1942 births 2019 deaths People educated at Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys English male non-fiction writers Mensans