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Jay Wright Forrester

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Jay Forrester
Born14 Jul,1918
Climax, Nebraska

Jay Wright Forrester (born 14 July 1918, Climax, Nebraska) is a pioneer American computer engineer and systems theorist.

Born on a farm near Anselmo, Nebraska, Forrester was educated at MIT in electrical engineering, where he spent his entire career. During the 1940s and early 50s, he did research in electrical and computer engineering, heading the Whirlwind project and developing the "Multi-coordinate digitally information storage device" (coincident-current system), the forerunner of today's RAM. He is believed to have created the first animation in the history of computer graphics, a "jumping ball" on an oscilloscope.

In 1956, Forrester moved to the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he is currently Germeshausen Professor Emeritus and Senior Lecturer. In 1982, he received the IEEE Computer Pioneer Award.[1] In 2006, he was inducted into the Operational Research Hall of Fame.

Forrester is the founder of System Dynamics, which deals with the simulation of interactions between objects in dynamic systems. Industrial Dynamics was the first book Forrester wrote using System Dynamics to analyze industrial business cycles. Several years later, interactions with former Boston Mayor John F. Collins led Forrester to write Urban Dynamics, which sparked an ongoing debate on the feasibility of modeling broader social problems.

The urban dynamics model attracted the attention of urban planners around the world, eventually leading Forrester to meet a founder of the Club of Rome. He later met with the Club of Rome to discuss issues surrounding global sustainability; the book World Dynamics followed. World Dynamics took on modeling the complex interactions of the world economy, population and ecology, which understandably met with much misunderstanding (see also Donella Meadows and Limits to Growth). Forrester has made numerous other contributions to System Dynamics, and has promoted System Dynamics in education down to the present day.

Books by Forrester

  • 1961. Industrial dynamics. Waltham, MA: Pegasus Communications.
  • 1968. Principles of Systems, 2nd ed. Pegasus Communications.
  • 1969. Urban Dynamics. Pegasus Communications.
  • 1973. World Dynamics. Pegasus Communications.
  • 1975. Collected Papers of Jay W. Forrester. Pegasus Communications.

References

  1. ^ "Computer Pioneer Award". Retrieved 2006-05-03.


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