Jessica Libertini, PhD
Associate Professor and Director of the Mathematical Sciences Center, U.S. Military Academy at West Point
The Creative Education Foundation (CEF) is pleased to announce the 2025 Ruth B. Noller Research Grant recipient, Jessica Libertini, PhD. The Noller Research Grant honors the pioneering work of creativity researcher and educator Ruth B. Noller. The Grant fosters and supports emerging, paradigm-shifting research with high potential for impact in the field of creativity, creative education studies, and creative thinking by recognizing an individual or team engaged in such research. Noller was widely known for cultivating the scientific understanding for creative thinking. Noller is most famous for developing the creativity formula Cƒa (KIE) – the interaction between Knowledge, Imagination, and Evaluation generates Creativity. Noller’s groundbreaking work served as the stimulus for future research in creativity.
The Grantee:
Dr. Libertini identifies as an “undisciplinarian,” seeking to span and break down disciplinary boundaries. She is happiest when bringing together interdisciplinary and international teams to address complex global challenges, leveraging her facilitation and design thinking skills to create inclusive, collaborative research environments. Currently, she is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where she serves as the Director of the Mathematical Sciences Center. Previous positions include Senior Advisor for International Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation, Science & Policy Fellow for International Cooperation at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Interdisciplinary Professor of Science & Technology + Innovative Futures at the Joint Special Operations University, and Senior Engineer at General Dynamics. Dr. Libertini holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering (Johns Hopkins University); masters degrees in international and European security (University of Geneva and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy), applied mathematics (Brown University), and mechanical engineering (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), and Ph.D. in applied mathematics (Brown University).
During her tenure at Joint Special Operations University, Dr. Libertini took and later taught courses in design thinking and creative problem-solving, where she first learned about the work of pioneers in the field of creativity science, including Dr. Noller and Dr. Puccio. In this setting, she learned about individual preferences in the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Process, as codified by Dr. Puccio’s work, and she noticed how the group dynamics shifted when members of a team became aware of both their own preferences in the CPS process and those of their teammates. After providing CPS training that revealed the individual CPS preferences to teams of special operators, she observed these teams tackling challenging problems and saw that they not only came up with better solutions to their problems but also seemed to have a more positive and collaborative experience working together. Dr. Libertini also noticed that the CPS process overlaid well with the mathematical modeling process, a framework that leverages mathematical tools to understand and interrogate the world around us. She became curious — wondering if the anecdotal improved outcomes she had observed working with Navy Seals and Army Rangers would translate to individuals and teams performing scientific research.
The Project:
Dr. Libertini plans to use the Noller Research Grant to begin investigating how knowledge about the CPS process and individual preferences influence scientific research, starting in the mathematical sciences. While a portion of her research will go into measuring gains in scientific output, much of her work will focus on affective outcomes, in other words, how people feel about their research experience. Past research has demonstrated that positive research experiences positively correlate with persistence in STEM disciplines, and Dr. Libertini’s hope is that CPS training and awareness of their individual and team preferences will lead to students and early-career researchers having more positive experiences as part of a research team.
Dr. Libertini is particularly excited to bring CPS training to Dr. Noller’s own field of mathematical sciences, and she is excited to share her work with both the creativity science and mathematical sciences communities. Following the grant year, Dr. Libertini hopes to expand her work to other academic disciplines and settings to better understand how differences in disciplinary and/or institutional cultures might impact the role of CPS training on affective and scientific research outcomes.
We are deeply grateful to our independent Noller Review Committee. The Noller Grant award process is a blind review process. Thank you for your service: Karina Loera Bárcenas, Committee Chair; Jean Bakk; Branko Broekman; Diane Foucar-Szocki; John Frederick; Serap Gurak-Ozdemir; Tim Hurson; Elizabeth Monroe-Cook; Bill Shephard; and Walter Stevenson.