Howard Hunt Pattee (born October 5, 1926) is an American biologist, Professor Emeritus at

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university with campuses in Binghamton, New York, Binghamton, Vestal, New York, Vestal, and Johnson City, New Yor ...

and Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

. He graduated at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1948 and completed a Ph.D. there in 1953.

Academics

Professor Pattee's main research interests are

theoretical biology Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of biology which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical models and abstractions of the living organisms to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development a ...

with a focus on

origin of life In biology, abiogenesis (from a- 'not' + Greek bios 'life' + genesis 'origin') or the origin of life is the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothes ...

artificial life Artificial life (often abbreviated ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry ...

biosemiotics Biosemiotics (from the Greek βίος ''bios'', "life" and σημειωτικός ''sēmeiōtikos'', "observant of signs") is a field of semiotics and biology that studies the prelinguistic meaning-making, biological interpretation processes, p ...

, semiotic control of

dynamic systems In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a function describes the time dependence of a point in an ambient space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a clock pendulum, the flow of water in a p ...

, and the physics of codes and symbols. His many contributions to the "symbol-matter" problem within the

cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...

have had much influence on

complex systems A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication s ...

and

. Books by other authors that have built upon his work include ''The Consciousness Instinct'' by

Michael Gazzaniga Michael S. Gazzaniga (born December 12, 1939) is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the USA, where he heads the new SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. He is one of the leading researchers in cognitive ...

and ''Behavior and Culture in One Dimension: Sequences, Affordances, and the Evolution of Complexity'' by his former Ph.D. student Dennis P. Waters.

Eponymous species

* In 2019, a lichen species new to science, ''Catillaria patteeana'', was named for Dr. Pattee.

References

Publications

Bibliography

Downloadable papers
* Howard H. Pattee
''Hierarchy theory: the challenge of complex systems''
G. Braziller, 1973. * Howard H. Pattee and Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi
''Laws, Language and Life: Howard Pattee’s classic papers on the physics of symbols with contemporary commentary''
Springer, 2012. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-5161-3. * Howard H. Pattee;

Kalevi Kull Kalevi Kull (born 12 August 1952, Tartu) is a biosemiotics professor at the University of Tartu, Estonia. He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1975. His earlier work dealt with ethology and field ecology. He has studied the mechanisms ...

2009
A biosemiotic conversation: Between physics and semiotics.
''

Sign Systems Studies ''Sign Systems Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal on semiotics edited at the Department of Semiotics of the University of Tartu and published by the University of Tartu Press. It is the oldest periodical in the field. It was initially p ...

'' 37(1/2): 311–331.

External links

Google Scholar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pattee, Howard H. 1926 births Living people Binghamton University faculty Researchers of artificial life