About

Sentripetal is an independent consultancy founded by Avery Sen. Avery is an innovation policy analyst and R&D strategist with 20 years of experience supporting space, environment, healthcare, national security, and arts organizations. His work centers on the structure of innovation, and how knowledge, technology, and design co-evolve with human institutions. As an independent consultant, his clients have included SRI International, S&R Foundation, and Sage Bionetworks.

Avery has worked in government and non-profit research, creating strategies and evaluation frameworks for science and technology programs, both domestic and international. He has worked in management consulting, applying the methods of strategic foresight to a range of public sector challenges. He has worked in the US federal government, where he planned and evaluated programs to transition R&D results into useful applications, and served on the Interagency Working Group on the Science of Science Policy.  He is also co-founder of Sen Sound, a human-centered sound design startup in the healthcare space. 

Avery earned a BA in Science & Technology Studies from Cornell University, as well as an MA in International Science and Technology Policy and a PhD in Public Administration from The George Washington University.  His master’s work was in space policy and his thesis focused on the social welfare benefits of public remote sensing programs. His dissertation examined how projects at DARPA and ARPA-E are managed to produce transformative innovation.