Cliff Joslyn (born 1963) is an American mathematician, cognitive scientist, and

cybernetician A cyberneticist or a cybernetician is a person who practices cybernetics. Heinz von Foerster once told Stuart Umpleby that Norbert Wiener preferred the term "cybernetician" rather than "cyberneticist", perhaps because Wiener was a mathematician ...

. He is currently the Chief Knowledge Scientist and Team Lead for Mathematics of Data Science at the

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is one of the United States Department of Energy national laboratories, managed by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science. The main campus of the laboratory is in Richland, Washington. O ...

in Seattle, Washington, USA, and Visiting Professor o
Systems Science
at Binghamton University (SUNY).

Biography

Cliff Joslyn studied at

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

and received a BA in Cognitive Science and

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, with High Honors in

Cybernetics Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...

, in 1985. In 1987 he continued at the

State University of New York The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by c ...

at Binghamtonm studying under

George Klir George Jiří Klir (April 22, 1932 – May 27, 2016) was a Czech-American computer scientist and professor of systems sciences at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York. Biography George Klir was born in 1932 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. ...

. In 1989 he received an MS, and in 1994 received a PhD, both in Systems Science, including the thesis "Possibilistic Processes for Complex Systems Modeling". From 1994 to 1996 he was an NRC Research Associate at

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...

. From 1996 to 2007 he was team leader at

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...

, where he led the Knowledge and Information Systems Science research team in the Modeling, Algorithms and Informatics (CCS-3) Group of the Computer, Computational, and Statistical Sciences Division. Since 2007 he is Chief Scientist for Knowledge Sciences Cliff Joslyn at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Accessed May 23, 2015. and the Team Leader for Mathematics of Data Science at the

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. In 2022 Joslyn took a position as a Visiting Professor of Systems Science in the Systems Science and Industrial Engineering department 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 ...

. Joslyn is on the editorial boards of the "International Journal of General Systems" and "Biosemiotics". In 1991 Joslyn was awarded the Sir Geoffrey Vickers' Award for Best Student Paper from 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 ...

. In 1997 he received the Distinguished Performance Award: A Large Team Award for IRS Fraud Detection Projects, Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Work

Joslyn's research interests extend from "order theoretical approaches to knowledge discovery and database analysis to include computational semiotics, qualitative modeling, and generalized information theory, with applications in computational biology, infrastructure protection, homeland defense, intelligence analysis, and defense transformation".

Principia Cybernetica

Principia Cybernetica Principia Cybernetica is an international cooperation of scientists in the field of cybernetics and systems science, especially known for their website, Principia Cybernetica. They have dedicated their organization to what they call "a computer-sup ...

is an international organization in the field of

cybernetics Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...

and systems science focused on the collaborative development of a "computer-supported evolutionary-systemic

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

in the context of the transdisciplinary academic fields of Systems Science and Cybernetics". The organisation was initiated in 1989 by Joslyn,

Valentin Turchin Valentin Fyodorovich Turchin (russian: Валенти́н Фёдорович Турчи́н, 14 February 1931 in Podolsk – 7 April 2010 in Oakland, New Jersey) was a Soviet and American physicist, cybernetician, and computer scientist. He d ...

of the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

, and

Francis Heylighen Francis Paul Heylighen (born 27 September 1960) is a Belgian cyberneticist investigating the emergence and evolution of intelligent organization. He presently works as a research professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (the Dutch-speaking Fre ...

from the

Vrije Universiteit Brussel The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) () is a Dutch and English-speaking research university located in Brussels, Belgium.The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is one of the five universities officially recognised by the Flemish Community, Flemish gov ...

in Belgium. These three scientists managed the project and worked together in an editorial board, which manages the collection, selection and development of the material, and the implementation of the computer system.

Knowledge and Information Systems Science

At Los Alamos Joslyn and his Knowledge and Information Systems Science team performed scientific research in "

computational method Computation is any type of arithmetic or non-arithmetic calculation that follows a well-defined model (e.g., an algorithm). Mechanical or electronic devices (or, historically, people) that perform computations are known as '' computers''. An e ...

s for the extraction, representation, organization, synthesis, discovery, and retrieval of knowledge in databases and information systems. They especially emphasize methods for representing semantic information, and hybrid methodologies combining statistical, numerical, and quantitative with symbolic, logical, and qualitative techniques".Knowledge and Information Systems Science Team
. Accessed May 29, 2009. A primary application area is

computational biology Computational biology refers to the use of data analysis, mathematical modeling and computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer science, biology, and big data, the field also has fo ...

, and thus they had a close working relationship with the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics team. Other application areas include homeland defense,

critical infrastructure protection Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) is a concept that relates to the preparedness and response to serious incidents that involve the critical infrastructure of a region or nation. The American Presidential directive PDD-63 of May 1998 set up ...

, intelligence analysis, decision support environments, risk and reliability analysis, and defense transformation.

Publications

Joslyn has published numerous papers, articles and book chapters. A selection:Cliff Joslyn
List of publications from the DBLP Bibliography Server. Accessed May 29, 2009. * 1994. ''Possibilistic Processes for Complex Systems Modeling''. PhD Dissertation, SUNY-Binghamton, Systems Science. * 1995. ''The Quantum of Evolution: Towards a Theory of Meta-System Transitions''. With

, and

eds. Gordon and Breach.

References

External links

Cliff Joslyn
personal page.
Cliff Joslyn
on Google Scholar.
Cliff Joslyn
at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

on Principia Cybernetica Web {{DEFAULTSORT:Joslyn, Cliff 1963 births Cyberneticists Living people American systems scientists Complex systems scientists