John Nelson Warfield (November 21, 1925November 17, 2009) was an American systems scientist, who was professor and director of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Integrative Sciences (IASIS) at George Mason University, and president of the Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society.

Biography

Warfield was born November 21, 1925 and grew up in

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

, and studied at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

in Columbia. Originally he majored in chemistry and minored in mathematics, but his studies were interrupted by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. After basic training in the U. S. Army Infantry, the Army put him in a specialized training program to study electrical engineering, which he found very interesting, especially electronics and communications.John N. Warfield Background
retrieved 24 August 2007. After the war he completed his original undergraduate program and continued on to get advanced degrees in electrical engineering. He received the Bachelor of Arts in 1948, Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1948, and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1949 from the University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. He received the Doctor of Philosophy degree from

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...

West Lafayette, Indiana West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister cit ...

in 1952. His major was electrical engineering with a specialty in

communications engineering Telecommunications Engineering is a subfield of electrical engineering which seeks to design and devise systems of communication at a distance. The work ranges from basic circuit design to strategic mass developments. A telecommunication enginee ...

. He gained about 10 years of industrial experience with the firms: Wilcox Electric Company, Battelle Memorial Institute, and Burroughs Corporation. His industrial experience included theoretical and experimental research, electronic development and reliability testing of navigational equipment for jet aircraft. His longest service in this group was with the Battelle Memorial Institute from 1968 to 1974, where he held the title Senior Research Leader. At Battelle, and later at Virginia and George Mason universities, he developed the sociotechnology of interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and developed interactive management in collaboration with

Alexander Christakis Alexander (Aleco) Christakis ( el, Αλέξανδρος Χρηστάκης; born 1937) is a Greek American social scientist, systems scientist and cyberneticist, former faculty member of several Universities, organizational consultant and member o ...

from 1979 till 1989. He was elected President of the Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE, and of the

International Society for the Systems Sciences The International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) is a worldwide organization for systems sciences. The overall purpose of the ISSS is: :"to promote the development of conceptual frameworks based on general system theory, as well as their ...

(formerly called the Society for General Systems Research). He served as Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics from 1968 to 1971, and as founding Editor-in-Chief of the Pergamon journal ''Systems Research'', during the period 1981–1990. Warfield was a member of the Academic Committee of the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics. He was a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and holds that organization's Centennial Medal. He was a member of the Association for Integrative Studies, and in the Board of Governors of the International Society for Panetics. In 2006 John N. Warfield was awarded the Joseph G. Wohl Award for Career Achievement at the 2006 annual meeting of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society. This is the highest award given by the society, and is not awarded every year. He was awarded for his contributions to systems engineering concepts, methodology, design, education and management. Warfield was also awarded the IEEE Third Millennium Medal.

Publications

Warfield was the author of more than 10 books and 100 papers.LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
Complete list of publications of John N. Warfield, retrieved 25 August 2007. His books: * 1958. ''Synthesis of Linear Communications Networks''. with G. E. Knausenberger, New York: McGraw-Hill. * 1959. ''Introduction to Electronic Analog Computers''. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. * 1963. ''Principles of Logic Design''. Boston: Ginn and Company. * 1976. ''Societal Systems: Planning, Policy, and Complexity''. New York: Wiley Interscience. * 1990. ''A Science of Generic Design: Managing Complexity through Systems Design''. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press 1994. * 1994. ''A Handbook of Interactive Management''. With Roxana Cárdenas, Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press 1994. * 2002. ''Understanding Complexity: Thought and Behavior''. AJAR Publishing Company, Palm Harbor, FL. * 2003. ''The Mathematics of Structure''. AJAR Publishing Company, Palm Harbor, FL. * 2006. ''An Introduction to Systems Sciences''. World Scientific, Singapore Articles, papers and monographs, a selection: * 1956. ''Systems Engineering''. United States Department of Commerce PB111801. * 1957. "How to Improve Systems Engineering". ''Aeronautical Engineering Review'', 16(7), July, 1957, 50-51. * 1969. "What is System Planning?". With R.W. House, in: ''Automatica'' Vol. 5, 1969, pp. 151–157. * 1972. ''A Unified Systems Engineering Concept''. With J. D. Hill, ''et al.'', ''Columbus: Battelle Memorial Institute, Monograph No. 1'', June, 1972. * 1974. ''Structuring Complex Systems''. ''Columbus: Battelle Memorial Institute Monograph No. 4'', April, 1974 * 1987. "Dimensionality" with

Systems Research 4, pp. 127–137 * 2003. "A Proposal for Systems Science". In: Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Vol. 20 (2003), pp. 507–520. * 2003. "Autobiographical Retrospectives: Discovering Systems Science". In: ''International Journal of General Systems'', December 2003 Vol 32 (6), pp. 525–563.

References

External links

Warfield site maintained by the Warfield IP Trust, includes free downloadable ISM software
J.N. Warfield
short resume
John N. Warfield
background

* Panetics Societ

Interview with Peirce, Foucault and Hayek about Ralph Siu

Can Panetics Become a Science? Second Interview with Foucault, Hayek, and Peirce, Interviews by John N. Warfield

Conflicting Values and Perceptions and Panetics by John N. Warfield
John N. Warfield Digital Archive

Obituary from TimesDaily

The Passing of Dr. John N. Warfield, 84

Warfield in the Quergeist collection
John Warfield Papers
Warfield family, {{Society for General Systems Research Presidents 1925 births 2009 deaths Systems engineers American systems scientists George Mason University faculty IEEE Centennial Medal laureates Presidents of the International Society for the Systems Sciences

Biography

Publications

See also

References

External links