View source for Robert Root-Bernstein

{{Short description|American academic (born 1953)}}
{{BLP sources|date=November 2025}}
{{Infobox scientist
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| fields = Physiology 
| workplaces = [[Michigan State University]]
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| education = [[Princeton University]] (PhD)
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| known_for =  Research on creativity
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'''Robert Root-Bernstein''' (born August 7, 1953) ([[PhD]], [[Princeton University]]) is a professor of [[physiology]] at [[Michigan State University]]. In 1981, he was awarded a [[MacArthur Fellowship]], commonly known as a "genius grant".

He has also researched and consulted on [[creativity]] for more than fifteen years. Among other books, he has authored ''Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People'', ''Discovering: Inventing and Solving Problems at the Frontiers of Scientific Knowledge'', and ''Rethinking AIDS: The Tragic Cost of Premature Consensus.'' In ''Rethinking AIDS'', Root-Bernstein postulated that factors in addition to [[HIV]] may contribute to [[AIDS]]. Root-Bernstein is a former member of the [[Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis]], a group of [[AIDS denialists]].

Root-Bernstein asserts that HIV, while involved in the development of AIDS, may be no more important than an accumulation of co-factors such as a history of poor nutrition, lack of hygiene, intravenous drug use, anal intercourse, as well as various infections and lifestyle diseases. In its April 2004 issue, [[POZ (magazine)|''POZ'']] published a quote it attributed to Root-Bernstein: "Both the camp that says HIV is a pussycat and the people who claim AIDS is all HIV are wrong ... The denialists make claims that are clearly inconsistent with existing studies. When I check the existing studies, I don't agree with the interpretation of the data, or, worse, I can't find the studies [at all]."<ref name="poz">{{cite magazine | url = http://www.poz.com/articles/451_2788.shtml | title = Dead Certain? | first = Bob | last = Lederer | magazine = [[POZ (magazine)|POZ]] | date = April 2006 | accessdate = 2006-10-31 | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20110104004003/http://www.poz.com/articles/451_2788.shtml | archivedate = 2011-01-04 | url-status = live }}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=June 2015}}

==Books authored==
* ''Discovering: Inventing and Solving Problems at the Frontiers of Science'', Harvard University Press, 1989.
* ''Rethinking AIDS: The Tragic Cost of Premature Consensus'', Free Press, 1993, {{ISBN|978-0-02-926905-3}}
* (with Michèle Root-Bernstein) ''Honey, Mud, Maggots and Other Medical Marvels'', Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
* (with Michèle Root-Bernstein) ''Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People'', Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

==References==
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==External links==
* [https://www.msu.edu/~rootbern/ Root-Bernstein's faculty web site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111225102744/http://www.msu.edu/%7Erootbern/ |date=2011-12-25 }} at Michigan State University
* [http://www.cla.purdue.edu/hk/news/vitality%202-15-08.pdf Brief Biography]{{Dead link|date=April 2024}}
* [http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/imagine Creativity Blog at Psychology Today] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222042247/http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/imagine |date=2008-12-22 }}

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[[Category:1953 births]]
[[Category:HIV/AIDS denialists]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:MacArthur Fellows]]
[[Category:Michigan State University faculty]]
[[Category:Princeton University alumni]]
[[Category:American physiologists]]


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