John Henry Holland

John Henry Holland (2 February 1929) is an American scientist and Professor of Psychology and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a pioneer in complex system and nonlinear science. He is known as the father of genetic algorithms. He was awarded the Louis E. Levy Medal in 1961.

Biography

Holland was born in Fort Wayne in Indiana in 1929. He studied Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a B.S. in 1950, and studied Mathematics at the University of Michigan and received an M.A. in 1954. In 1959 he was the recipient of the first computer science Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He is now Professor of Psychology and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

He is also a member of The Center for the Study of Complex Systems (CSCS) at the University of Michigan, and a member of the Board of Trustees and Science Board of the Santa Fe Institute.

John H Holland is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and a fellow of the World Economic Forum.

Work

Holland frequently lectures around the world on his own research, and on current research and open questions in complex adaptive systems (CAS) studies. In 1975 he wrote the ground-breaking book on genetic algorithms, "Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems". He also developed Holland's schema theorem.

Publications

Holland is the author of a number of books about CAS, including:

• 1975, Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems
• 1995, Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity
• 1998, Emergence: From Chaos to Order

Articles, a selection:

• 1959, "A universal computer capable of executing an arbitrary number of subprograms simultaneously", in: Proc. Eastern Joint Comp. Conf. pp. 108-112.
• 1960, "Iterative circuit computers", in: Proc. Western Joint Comp. Conf. pp. 259-265.
• 1962, "Outline for a logical theory of adaptive systems", in: JACM, Vol 9, nr. 3, pp. 279-314.
• 1970, "Hierarchical descriptions, universal spaces, and adaptive systems", in: Arthur W. Burks, editor. Essays on Cellular Automata. University of Illinois Press. 1970
• 1989, "Using Classifier Systems to Study Adaptive Nonlinear Networks", in: Daniel L. Stein, editor. Lectures in the Sciences of Complexity. Addison Wesley. 1989
• 1990, "Concerning the Emergence of Tag-Mediated Lookahead in Classifier Systems", in: Stephanie Forrest, editor. Emergent Computation: self-organizing, collective, and cooperative phenomena in natural and computing networks. MIT Press. 1991
• 1992, "The Royal Road for Genetic Algorithms: Fitness Landscapes and GA Performance", in: Francisco J. Varela, Paul Bourgine, editors. Toward a Practice of Autonomous Systems: proceedings of the first European conference on Artificial Life. MIT Press. 1992
• 1994, "Echoing Emergence: objectives, rough definitions, and speculations for ECHO-class models", in: George A. Cowan, David Pines, David Meltzer, editors. Complexity: metaphors, models, and reality, Addison-Wesley. 1994
• 1995, "Can There Be A Unified Theory of Complex Adaptive Systems?", in: Harold J. Morowitz, Jerome L. Singer, editors. The Mind, The Brain, and Complex Adaptive Systems. Addison-Wesley. 1995
• 2000, "Board Games", in: John Brockman, editor. The Greatest Inventions of the Past 2000 Years. Phoenix. 2000.
• 2002, "What is to Come and How to Predict It.", in: John Brockman, editor. The Next Fifty Years: science in the first half of the twenty-first century. Weidenfeld & Nicholson. 2002

External links

• Faculty Profile at University of Michigan web-site.
• Biography
• Bibliography of John Henry Holland by Susan Stepney.
• Echo project of John Holland at the Santa Fe Institute.