The Thinker of the Year Award has been awarded to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a professor and former chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago who has devoted his life's work to the study of what makes people truly happy, satisfied and fulfilled.

Mr. Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced "chick-sent-me-high") is chiefly renowned as the architect of the notion of "flow" in creativity; people enter a flow state when they are fully absorbed in activity during which they lose their sense of time and have feelings of great satisfaction. Mr. Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."

Cheryl Merrill, designer for BrainChannels said Mr. Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory opens up a whole new dimension for many of those who were unaware of this state of consciousness. "Flow is something everyone should strive for in their lives," said Merrill. "All of the great masters of anything that has to do with art, invention, music and ideas already know that losing one's self in something that you love to do, puts you into another dimension of time and reality that is a very pleasant place to be. Most of my web site was created within the consciousness of flow."

Mr. Csikszentmihalyi is also the author of many highly acclaimed books including, "The Evolving Self: A Psychology for the Third Millennium," "Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday Life," "Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention," and "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience." These books can be purchased at Brain Channels.