Tony Buzan

Anthony Peter "Tony" Buzan (/ˈbuːzən/; born 2 June 1942) is an English author and educational consultant.

Buzan popularized the idea of mental literacy and a thinking technique called Mind Mapping, earlier used by Leonardo da Vinci and others.

Buzan was born in Palmers Green, Enfield, Middlesex. He is an alumnus of Kitsilano Secondary School in Vancouver, where he was Head Boys' Prefect 1959-60. His brother is the academic Barry Buzan. Buzan completed his undergraduate studies at the University of British Columbia and was a charter student at Simon Fraser University in 1965-66 where he spent a year as a graduate student and the inaugural president of the Simon Fraser Student Society. During his time at SFU, Buzan became very involved in Mensa.

He is a promoter of mnemonic systems and mind mapping techniques. He launched his own software programme to support mind mapping called iMindMap in December 2006. 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.

Following his 1970s series Use Your Head for the BBC, many of his ideas have been set into his series of five books: Use Your Memory, Master Your Memory, Use Your Head, The Speed Reading Book and The Mind Map Book. He has since authored or co-authored over 100 books that have appeared in 30 languages..

As a popular psychology author, Tony Buzan has written on subjects relating to the brain, "genius quotient (GQ)", spiritual intelligence, memory, creativity and speed reading. He is 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 as well as the Mind Sports Olympiad.

Critics have called mind mapping pseudoscience, questioning the existence of evidence supporting the technique and the usefulness of mind mapping. However, a meta study about concept mapping concluded that concept mapping is more effective than "reading text passages, attending lectures, and participating in class discussions". The same study also concluded that concept mapping is slightly more effective "than other constructive activities such as writing summaries and outlines".

• Spore One - Structure in Hyperspace, September 25, 1972, ISBN 0-85115-016-0
• Use Your Head, January 1974, ISBN 0-563-10790-1
• Speed Memory, January 27, 1977, ISBN 0-7153-7365-X
• Make the Most of Your Mind, February 1984, ISBN 0-671-49519-4
• Speed Reading, 20 May 1971, ISBN 0-7221-2119-9
• Use Your Perfect Memory, Plume Penguin Group, January 1991, ISBN 0-452-26606-8
• Use Both Sides of Your Brain, Plume Penguin Group, Jan 1991, ISBN 0-452-26603-3
• The Mind Map Book, 6 September 1993, ISBN 0-563-36373-8
• Concordea, December 2006
• Requiem For Ted, December 2006
• Use Your Memory, BBC Publications, ISBN 1-4066-1018-6
• Master Your Memory, BBC Publications, ISBN 1-4066-1022-4
• The Memory Book, BBC Publications, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4066-4426-5
• Mind Maps for Business, BBC Publications, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4066-4290-2
• Brain Training for Kids, Proactive Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1-908934-00-0
• The Most Important Graph in the World, Proactive Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1-908934-01-7
• Modern Mind Mapping for Smarter Thinking e-book, Proactive Press, March 2013