Sidney Jay Parnes

Who is Sidney Jay Parnes?

Dr. Sidney J. Parnes is a retired professor at Buffalo State College and the co-founder of the International Center for Studies in Creativity. The Center is housed within Buffalo State College, one of the only places in the world that offers a Masters of Science degree in Creativity. The department also now offers a distance learning version of the degree to students around the world as well as an undergraduate minor in Creative Studies.

Parnes is a lifetime trustee of the Creative Education Foundation. He joined the in 1955 in order to help develop a comprehensive educational program for the CEF's Creative Problem Solving Institute, which is the world's longest-running international creativity conference. In 1966, CEF founder Alex Osborn died, leaving Parnes to head the Foundation.

Parnes and Alex Osborn developed the Creative Problem Solving Process, a structured method for generating solutions to problems. This method is taught annually at the International Center for Studies in Creativity, the Creative Problem Solving Institute and the CREA Conference in Europe.