Brad Henderson

Brad Henderson’s career at UC Davis spans more than two decades. His academic specialty is designing and teaching innovative writing and professionalism courses for engineering students and business majors. He is a strong advocate for experiential learning, cultural outreach, and integrating real-world challenges from industry partners into classes.

Brad retired from teaching undergraduate writing classes and was appointed lecturer emeritus in 2021. Although he is no longer “on the front lines,” he remains active as a subject matter expert in engineering writing theory and practice, and is a representative member of ASEE and UIDP.

Before serving on the faculty of the University Writing Program faculty, Henderson worked as a technical education specialist and apprenticeship program manager for Hewlett-Packard Inkjet in Corvallis, Oregon. Earlier in his career, he worked as a design engineer in aerospace. He has also held lectureship positions with UC Irvine's and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's Colleges of Engineering.

Over the course of his teaching career Henderson developed and test taught a novel math-based writing method. His book, A Math-Based Writing System for Engineers: Sentence Algebra & Document Algorithms (Springer Nature, 2020), presents the complete system.

Highly applicable to global industry culture, the system uses the universal language of math to help both native and multilingual speakers of English improve and refine their workplace writing skills. The book has served as the principal text for Henderson's engineering writing classes and seminars.

University students, faculty, and staff can download free ebook copies of this title through your institution's library subscriptions to SpringerLink (Springer eBooks). Note: if you log on from off-campus, be sure to use VPN for full access.

#MBWS4e = Math-Based Writing System for Engineers

Brad is on a mission to celebrate engineers who put the "A" for art into STEM to make creative STEAM. His memoir in verse, The Secret Cowboy: the life & times of the rebel poet beau hamel, will be published in 2023, and he is currently storyboarding a new creative nonfiction book examining his childhood growing up in the 1960s.

If you are, or know of, someone whose approach to life and work combines engineering education and practice with pursuits in music, poetry, drama, philosophy, or any such passions, please share. Let's smash the nerd myth. Being an engineer means being both mathy and multi-faceted ... and that's pretty darn cool.

#TotalEngineer = Engineer who puts the "A" for art into STEM to make creative "STEAM"

Learn more at BradHenderson.net | author-educator-innovator-engineer

LinkedIn bradhendersonucdavis

Brad Henderson on ResearchGate

M.A. in Professional Writing (MPW/MFA), University of Southern California, Los Angeles

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, minor in English, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo