# Academy of Systems Thinking (AST): full text

Source: https://academyofsystemsthinking.org. Generated 2026-10-23.

## About

The Academy of Systems Thinking (AST) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that advances and protects the science and practice of systems thinking. Its motto: where systems thinking is held to the standard of science.

Systems thinking was built by scientists and practitioners, people who discovered real structure in how the world works. Many of them went against the prevailing establishment to do it. AST exists to make sure the field stays rooted in evidence.

What AST does: advance the science of systems thinking; hold the field to evidentiary standards; honor the people who shape it (Members); recognize those advancing it (Contributors); spotlight emerging work (Commendations); teach the field's history and contributions, so learners can tell signal from noise (Education).

## How selection works

Contributions are machine-scored across a standardized 15-point rubric, with multiple independent assessments checked for agreement. No committee selects winners. What matters is whether the work holds up under scrutiny and whether it moved the field. Anyone can recommend a candidate, and submissions are always open. Recognition is honorary and archival, confers no duties, authority, or material benefit, and may be conferred on living or deceased individuals without application or acceptance.

## AST Honors

- AST Science Medal in Systems Thinking: The Academy’s highest honor. Field-shaping systems science with evidentiary rigor.
- AST Cognitive Move Prize: A validated addition to the visual structural grammar of thought.
  - 2026: D. Silberman, For the discovery of the Co-Everything Move, a new molecular configuration of the DSRP patterns, announced in the Journal of Systems Thinking in 2025.
  - 2026: K. Brown, For the discovery of the Part-Pano Move, a new molecular configuration of the DSRP patterns, announced in the Journal of Systems Thinking in 2025.
  - 2026: H. K. Coffman, For the discovery of the RD Starburst Move, a new molecular configuration of the DSRP patterns, announced in the Journal of Systems Thinking in 2025.
- AST Public Understanding in Systems Thinking Award: Public uptake while preserving scientific rigor.
  - 2026: Dr. Jennifer Kushner
  - 2026: Michael Collins, For bringing systems thinking to cybersecurity practice through a book-length treatment for a professional readership, supported by peer-reviewed work on the same subject.
- AST Promising Research in Systems Thinking Award: Emerging excellence in science and practice.
- AST Merit in Systems Thinking Award: Meaningful achievement, contribution, and service.
In years where no candidate meets the threshold, an honor is not awarded.

The AST Cognitive Move Prize goes to every new molecular Mental Move accepted into the Universal Cognitive Move Registry (UCMR), which AST keeps. Accepted Moves are also published in the Journal of Systems Thinking. Criteria and application: https://academyofsystemsthinking.org/move-prize

## Conference

International State of Systems Thinking® Conference (SoST), 2027: January 15, 2027 at 9:00 AM MST. Online, worldwide. Free. The largest systems thinking conference in the world. Each year the International State of Systems Thinking® Conference takes stock of where the field stands. It brings together the field's top scientists, its best practitioners, and its newest researchers, along with anyone who wants to do systems thinking better: business leaders, educators, policymakers, students, parents, mechanics. Anyone who thinks. For years it ran as the Cornell University International Systems Thinking Conference, a scientific research conference. In 2025 it drew more than 9,000 participants online, scientists and practitioners alike, in the largest gathering of its kind. It is now hosted by the Academy of Systems Thinking and has broadened its audience to anyone interested in the science and practice of systems thinking. Details and registration: https://academyofsystemsthinking.org/conference

## Journal of Systems Thinking (JoST)

JoST (https://jost.science) is AST's official journal. It uses post-publication peer review: articles are published after meeting clear criteria for rigor, clarity, and relevance, then opened to transparent, ongoing review.

## The AST Registry (106 people)

Listed by level. Within each level, highest-scoring contributions come first.

### Academy Members (64)

- Per Bak (Denmark): Developed the theory of self-organized criticality, proposing a general mechanism by which complex systems naturally evolve toward scale-invariant dynamics, influencing foundational work on emergence, cascades, and power-law behavior.
- Albert-László Barabási (USA): Discovered scale-free network structures and formalized preferential attachment, establishing a quantitative framework for understanding network topology across biological, technological, and social systems.
- Ludwig von Bertalanffy (Austria): Founded General Systems Theory, providing a conceptual framework for systems as organized wholes and enabling cross-domain structural comparison.
- Charles Darwin (UK): Formulated the theory of evolution by natural selection, establishing the foundational framework for adaptive, interdependent biological systems and long-term evolutionary dynamics.
- Leonhard Euler (Switzerland): Founded graph theory through the Königsberg bridges problem, establishing a formal structural representation of relational systems that underpins modern network science and structural mathematics.
- Heinz von Foerster (Austria): Founded second-order cybernetics and formalized observer-in-the-system perspectives, reshaping conceptual foundations of cybernetics and learning systems.
- John Henry Holland (USA): Developed genetic algorithms and formal complex adaptive systems modeling, providing foundational computational mechanisms for adaptation, emergence, and evolutionary dynamics in complex systems.
- Daniel Kahneman (Israel/USA): Co-developed prospect theory replacing expected utility and originated System 1/System 2 dual-process cognitive architecture.
- Rudolf E. Kálmán (USA): Developed the Kalman filter and modern state-space control theory, establishing foundational mathematical tools for estimation, feedback, and control in complex engineered and cyber-physical systems.
- Edward Lorenz (USA): Discovered deterministic chaos and sensitive dependence on initial conditions, founding chaos theory.
- Niklas Luhmann (Germany): Developed a communication-centered theory of autopoietic social systems, providing a comprehensive conceptual architecture for understanding society as self-producing systems of communication across domains such as law, politics, and organizations.
- Warren McCulloch (USA): Co-founded computational neuroscience by linking logic, neural networks, and cybernetics, shaping early systems approaches to cognition and brain modeling.
- John von Neumann (Hungary): Founded core computation and automata theory (including self-reproduction), providing formal architectures that underpin modern computation-based systems modeling.
- Elinor Ostrom (USA): Discovered the structural design principles of polycentric governance and common-pool resource systems, establishing a durable institutional systems architecture for how cooperation, constraints, and collective action self-organize across ecological and social domains.
- C.S. Peirce (USA): Originated triadic semiotics, abductive reasoning, and pragmaticism, providing an architecture of relational meaning-making and inference.
- Jean Piaget (Switzerland): Founded genetic epistemology: schemas, assimilation, accommodation, equilibration as architecture of cognitive development and structural thinking.
- Ilya Prigogine (Belgium): Discovered dissipative structures and advanced non-equilibrium thermodynamics, providing empirically grounded foundations for self-organization and modern complexity science.
- Xuesen Qian (China): Developed Open Complex Giant Systems and meta-synthetic methodology, proposing structured approaches for integrating qualitative judgment with quantitative modeling at large scale.
- Claude Shannon (USA): Formulated information theory, defining information as a measurable quantity and establishing a formal basis for communication and computation in systems contexts.
- Herbert A. Simon (USA): Developed bounded rationality and hierarchical organization as core concepts in decision-making and organizations, shaping conceptual and empirical work on complex systems behavior.
- Alan Turing (UK): Founded core theory of computation and proposed reaction–diffusion morphogenesis models, contributing formal and modeling foundations relevant to complex systems and pattern formation.
- Amos Tversky (Israel/USA): Co-developed prospect theory and the heuristics-and-biases program, providing structural models of systematic cognitive error in judgment and decision-making.
- Lotfi Zadeh (USA): Founded fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic, creating an entirely new mathematical formalism for reasoning under vagueness with transdisciplinary reach.
- Ernst von Glasersfeld (Ireland): Developed radical constructivism as a conceptual foundation for learning and knowledge, shaping second-order cybernetics and systems epistemology.
- Alfred North Whitehead (UK/USA): Developed process philosophy, replacing substance ontology with process ontology as a systemic architecture for understanding reality as relational events.
- Christopher Alexander (UK/USA): Originated Pattern Language and articulated structural properties of “wholeness” in design, influencing architecture, urbanism, and software pattern methodology.
- W. Ross Ashby (UK): Formulated the Law of Requisite Variety and core ideas in regulation and control, providing a foundational theoretical basis for adaptation in complex systems.
- Derek Cabrera (USA): Discovered O-Theory and MIO and RIO Laws, establishing a formal, empirical theory of model–world alignment and demonstrating that distinctions, part–whole organization, relationships, and perspectives (DSRP) constitute the universal structure of mind and nature.
- C. West Churchman (USA): Founded the systems approach to inquiry and boundary concepts, providing generative architecture for scoping systems interventions.
- John Dewey (USA): Developed pragmatist epistemology of inquiry as structured process and reflective thinking, providing architecture for experiential and transactional cognition.
- Gerald Edelman (USA): Developed Neural Darwinism as a biologically grounded theory of brain development and cognition, proposing system-level mechanisms (e.g., selection, reentry) used in neuroscience discourse.
- Kurt Lewin (Germany/USA): Developed field theory for social systems (B=f(P,E)), topological psychology, and action research as systemic methodology for change.
- Benoit Mandelbrot (France/USA): Originated fractal geometry and formalized self-similarity and non-integer dimensional scaling, establishing a mathematical regime for analyzing irregular and scale-invariant phenomena.
- James Grier Miller (USA): Developed Living Systems Theory identifying 20 critical subsystems operating isomorphically across 7 hierarchical levels of living systems.
- Howard T. Odum (USA): Created emergy theory and energy systems language (circuit diagrams for ecosystems), providing a new formalism for systems ecology.
- Gordon Pask (UK): Developed Conversation Theory and cybernetic learning architectures, formalizing knowledge construction as recursive interaction between participants and systems, influencing second-order cybernetics and educational systems design.
- Walter Pitts (USA): Co-originated the McCulloch-Pitts neuron formalizing neural computation as logic, foundational to neural network theory.
- Karl Pribram (USA): Developed systems-level theories of memory and cognition (including holonomic proposals), contributing conceptual alternatives to localized, reductionist brain models.
- René Thom (France): Originated catastrophe theory, a topological classification of discontinuous change in dynamical systems.
- Norbert Wiener (USA): Founded cybernetics, formalizing feedback, control, and communication as general concepts spanning biological and engineered systems.
- Russell Ackoff (USA): Developed Interactive Planning and a practical theory of organizational problem formulation (“messes”), shaping applied systems thinking in management and design practice.
- Gregory Bateson (UK): Developed a systems-oriented account of mind and learning (“ecology of mind”), advancing concepts of recursion, communication, and epistemology used across systems discourse.
- Stafford Beer (UK): Developed management cybernetics (including POSIWID) and the Viable System Model, providing a structured methodology for organizational diagnosis and recursive governance.
- Alexander Bogdanov (Russia): Authored Tektology, an early general science of organization proposing structural similarities across biological, social, and economic systems, anticipating later developments in general systems theory and cybernetics.
- Kenneth E. Boulding (USA): Developed the General Systems hierarchy framework and advanced systems thinking within economics and social science, contributing to cross-disciplinary conceptual integration in systems theory.
- Laura Cabrera (USA): Co-developed O-Theory/DSRP applications and led validation of the TQ instrument, advancing empirical measurement of systems thinking as a cognitive skill and translating findings into education, policy, and applied practice.
- Peter Checkland (UK): Developed Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), establishing a learning-oriented methodological approach for ill-structured problem situations in organizations and public systems.
- Terrence Deacon (USA): Developed teleodynamics and a theory of absential causation linking thermodynamics, biology, and cognition, proposing a naturalized account of purpose and symbolic capacity.
- Jay W. Forrester (USA): Founded system dynamics and introduced stock–flow–feedback modeling as a general method for analyzing complex system behavior in policy and organizations.
- Karl Friston (UK): Developed the Free Energy Principle and formalized the Markov blanket as an architectural boundary linking thermodynamics, inference, and cognition, an integrative bridge between mind and nature in complex adaptive systems.
- Murray Gell-Mann (USA): Co-founded modern complexity science through foundational theoretical contributions and institution-building that established interdisciplinary study of complex adaptive systems.
- Stuart Kauffman (USA): Developed NK models and autocatalytic set theory, formalizing mechanisms of self-organization and evolutionary innovation within complex adaptive systems.
- George Klir (USA): Created the formal hierarchy of systems modeling (GSPS architecture), providing a mathematical backbone for systems problem solving and clarifying levels of model representation across domains.
- Alfred Korzybski (Poland/USA): Originated General Semantics and the “map vs territory” representational grammar, establishing a foundational epistemic architecture for distinguishing models from reality across cognition, language, and systems discourse.
- Vladimir Lefebvre (Russia): Developed reflexive models of decision and social interaction, providing formal tools used in parts of psychology, social science, and influence analysis.
- Humberto Maturana (Chile): Co-developed autopoiesis and a biology of cognition, providing a conceptual framework for living systems and observer-involved cognition.
- Edgar Morin (France): Developed a transdisciplinary philosophy of complex thought, providing a conceptual framework for understanding interdependence, uncertainty, and self-organization across domains.
- Anatol Rapoport (Canada/USA): Advanced mathematical biology, evolutionary game theory (including early articulation of Tit-for-Tat dynamics), and formal modeling of social interaction, strengthening quantitative social systems analysis.
- Robert Rosen (USA): Originated Metabolism-Repair-systems and relational biology, proposing a non-mechanistic structural architecture for living systems (metabolism–repair closure) that reframed what it means for a system to be “alive.”
- Steven H. Strogatz (USA): Co-developed small-world network theory and advanced nonlinear dynamics education and modeling, strengthening formal understanding of synchronization and network structure in complex systems.
- Werner Ulrich (Switzerland): Developed Critical Systems Heuristics and formalized boundary critique, providing a structured methodology for surfacing assumptions, defining system boundaries, and improving ethical and practical rigor in complex interventions.
- Francisco Varela (Chile): Co-developed autopoiesis and advanced enactive cognition and neurophenomenology, strengthening conceptual links between living systems, cognition, and observer-involved approaches.
- Duncan J. Watts (USA): Co-developed small-world network theory, demonstrating how clustered local structure and short global path lengths coexist in complex networks, reshaping modern network science across disciplines.
- Hector Zenil (UK): Developed Algorithmic Information Dynamics, including the Coding Theorem and Block Decomposition Methods for estimating algorithmic complexity and a perturbation-based algorithmic causal calculus for inferring the causal structure of networks and biological systems. He was awarded the IASCYS Prize for his work.

### Recognized Contributors (19)

- Urie Bronfenbrenner (USA): Founded ecological systems theory (micro/meso/exo/macro/chronosystem), a nested structural grammar for how layered contexts shape human development.
- Douglas Hofstadter (USA): Developed strange loops and self-reference as cognitive architecture, formalizing how recursive structure generates mind and meaning.
- George Lakoff (USA): Originated conceptual metaphor theory showing abstract thought is structured by embodied image schemas, reframing cognitive architecture.
- Margaret Mead (USA): Applied cybernetics to social and cultural analysis, contributing early second-order perspectives on learning, observation, and social systems.
- Donella Meadows (USA): Advanced sustainability-oriented systems practice by applying system dynamics and communicating stock–flow–feedback modeling and leverage concepts for socio-environmental policy and public understanding.
- John D. Sterman (USA): Advanced and consolidated system dynamics through formal behavioral modeling, policy feedback analysis, and large-scale application, strengthening the empirical and methodological foundations of dynamic systems modeling across domains.
- Stephen Wolfram (USA): Developed a computational approach to complexity using rule-based models, contributing formal and methodological tools for studying emergent behavior in complex systems.
- Chris Argyris (USA): Developed double-loop learning as architecture for how thinking changes its own premises, with theories of action for organizational learning.
- W. Brian Arthur (USA): Developed increasing returns, path dependence, and complexity economics, reframing economic systems through complexity science.
- Charles François (Belgium): Created a field-level reference synthesis (International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics) that stabilized terminology and improved cross-tradition coherence.
- Arthur Koestler (Hungary/UK): Originated the holon concept and holarchy, providing structural vocabulary for part-whole organization across systems thinking.
- Ervin László (Hungary): Advanced systems philosophy and evolutionary systems perspectives, contributing conceptual integration across science, society, and global discourse.
- Magoroh Maruyama (Japan/USA): Formalized deviation-amplifying mutual causal processes (‘the second cybernetics’), extending cybernetic theory to positive feedback.
- Gerald R. Midgley (UK): Developed systemic intervention and methodological pluralism in applied systems practice, integrating critical reflection with participatory, evidence-informed intervention design across domains.
- Karl H. Müller (Austria): Advanced sociocybernetics and second-order systems discourse through conceptual work on reflexivity, constructivism, and the observer in social systems.
- Peter Senge (USA): Developed widely adopted organizational learning frameworks and advanced the diffusion of system dynamics–based systems thinking in management, education, and organizational development.
- Robert Vallée (France): Advanced systems and cybernetics scholarship within the French tradition, contributing conceptual continuity, interpretation, and historical coherence across cybernetics work.
- John Warfield (USA): Developed Interactive Structural Modeling (ISM) and the Science of Generic Design, providing reusable structural methodology for complex problem-structuring.
- Andrzej P. Wierzbicki (Poland): Developed decision and knowledge methodologies (including multi-criteria approaches) used in complex systems planning, evaluation, and governance contexts.

### Commendations (23)

- Yaneer Bar-Yam (USA): Developed multiscale complexity framework and founded NECSI, applying complexity science across public health, military, and urban systems.
- Mary Catherine Bateson (USA): Extended cybernetics and systems ideas into cultural analysis and human development, applying systems thinking in anthropology, communication, and education contexts.
- Søren Brier (Denmark): Developed cybersemiotics as a conceptual synthesis linking systems theory, semiotics, and philosophy to address meaning-making in complex systems.
- Tom R. Burns (Sweden): Developed actor-system dynamics and related institutional systems concepts, contributing sociological systems theory used in governance and social systems analysis.
- Fritjof Capra (USA): Produced influential syntheses linking systems ideas with contemporary science, ecology, and culture, contributing broad public and interdisciplinary uptake.
- Mary Parker Follett (USA): Developed integrative thinking, circular response, and power-with concepts, providing early systemic architecture for organizational and social thought.
- Ranulph Glanville (UK): Advanced second-order cybernetics in design and education, formalizing reflexive practice and observer-inclusion as core principles in systemic design and learning.
- Jifa Gu (China): Created the WSR (Wuli-Shili-Renli) methodology integrating physical, rational, and human dimensions into systems problem-solving, bridging Eastern philosophy with systems methodology.
- Debora Hammond (USA): Advanced historical and conceptual integration of general systems theory and cybernetics, clarifying intellectual lineages and epistemological foundations and strengthening coherence across systems traditions.
- Wolfgang Hofkirchner (Austria): Formulated a Unified Theory of Information as systems philosophy, providing conceptual structure for information, society, and complexity in systems contexts.
- Louis H. Kauffman (USA): Developed formal work linking topology, logic, and self-reference, contributing mathematical foundations relevant to cybernetics, computation, and systems modeling.
- Matjaz Mulej (Slovenia): Developed requisite holism and systems innovation approaches in management and organization, supporting applied uptake and field stewardship in systemics.
- Bjarne Berg (Norway): Applied learning-organization and systems practice in organizations, supporting adoption, capability-building, and operational use across Norwegian contexts.
- Klaus Krippendorff (USA): Developed a systems-oriented theory of communication and meaning, shaping conceptual and methodological approaches in information, design, and human-centered systems contexts.
- Loet Leydesdorff (Netherlands): Developed scientometric and innovation-systems models (including triple-helix dynamics) used for empirical analysis of knowledge production and systems of innovation.
- Melanie Mitchell (USA): Advanced complexity science and genetic algorithms through formal analysis, computational modeling, and conceptual synthesis, contributing to understanding of emergence, adaptation, and artificial life within complex systems.
- Roberto Moreno-Díaz (Spain): Developed neurocybernetic retinal theory and advanced natural and artificial visual perception research, extending McCulloch's neural framework to robotic vision systems.
- Constantin Virgil Negoita (Romania/USA): Co-founded the first journal on fuzzy sets and systems with Zadeh and Zimmermann, authored the first textbook on fuzzy sets, and contributed to early structural development of fuzzy set theory.
- José Perez-Rios (Spain): Advanced system dynamics and management methodology through applied practice and teaching, supporting uptake of SD methods in organizational and educational contexts.
- David Silberman (USA): Led applied programs in trauma and PTSD-focused work relevant to systems-oriented practice, contributing community-facing impact and program development.
- Linda Booth Sweeney (USA): Advanced systems education and pedagogy, developing curricula and tools that supported broad learning in K–12, higher education, and professional practice.
- Jennifer Wilby (UK): Contributed systems methodology scholarship and field stewardship through sustained leadership supporting systems community development and applied practice.
- Rainer Ernst Zimmermann (Germany): Contributed to systems philosophy and science education through conceptual and historical analysis of systems thinking, cybernetics, and interdisciplinary knowledge structures.

## Contact

hub@academyofsystemsthinking.org