Frederic Vester (November 23, 1925 – November 2, 2003) was a German

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

, and an expert in the field of

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

Biography

Vester was born in

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...

, and studied

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

at the universities of

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. From 1955 to 1957, he was postdoctoral fellow at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. From 1957 to 1966 he worked at Saarland University,

, and from 1969 he worked in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, first at the Max Planck Institute. In 1970 he founded the private Munich-based ''Frederic Vester Studiengruppe für Biologie und Umwelt GmbH'' ("Frederic Vester Study Group for Biology and Environment, Ltd.), renamed ''Frederic Vester GmbH'' ("Frederic Vester, Ltd.") after his death. From 1982 to 1989 he was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at the Bundeswehr University Munich, and from 1989 to 1991 he was Professor for

Applied Economics Applied economics is the application of economic theory and econometrics in specific settings. As one of the two sets of fields of economics (the other set being the ''core''), it is typically characterized by the application of the ''core'', i.e ...

at the Hochschule St. Gallen,

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Vester's ideas influenced the formation of the

environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. In its recognition of humanity a ...

and the Green Party in Germany. He was a member of the Club of Rome. He was married to Anne Vester. The couple had three children and six grandchildren. He died in Munich.

Work

Networked thinking

Vester was known as pioneer of networked thinking, a combination of cybernetic and

system A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its open system (systems theory), environment, is described by its boundaries, str ...

ic ideas and

complexity Complexity characterizes the behavior of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to non-linearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence. The term is generally used to c ...

. Central ideas of network thinking include viewing a system as a network of interrelated effects, leading to emergent behavior of the system as a whole. These networks can be described by using protocols, mathematical networks, computer software, so that even someone with the most basic understanding of networks will see relations, including positive and negative feedback loops.

Simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

s of systemic networks can help to decide the long-term effects of

singular measure In mathematics, two positive (or signed or complex) measures \mu and \nu defined on a measurable space (\Omega, \Sigma) are called singular if there exist two disjoint measurable sets A, B \in \Sigma whose union is \Omega such that \mu is zero o ...

''Sensitivity Model''

Vester's ''Sensitivity Model'' combines these ideas, and has been used since the 1980s in studies by Ford,

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

and other organizations.

Publications

Most of Vesters books were published in German as well as in other languages, though seldom in English. A list of his works includes: * 1976, ''Ballungsgebiete in der Krise'' (Urban Systems in Crisis) * 1979, ''Das Überlebensprogramm'' (Plan for Survival) * 1982, ''Das kybernetische Zeitalter'' (The Cybernetic Age) * 1985, ''Ein Baum ist mehr als ein Baum'' (A Tree is More than a Tree) * 1990, ''Leitmotiv vernetztes Denken'' (Key Themes of Networked Thinking) * 1991, ''Ausfahrt Zukunft: Strategien für den Verkehr von morgen'' (Gateway Future: Strategies for the Transportation of Tomorrow) * 1999, ''Crashtest Mobilität'' (Crash Test Mobility) * 2002, ''Aufmerksamkeit im Unterricht'' (Attentiveness in the Classroom) * 2002, ''Neuland des Denkens'' (Uncharted Territory of Thought) * 2002, ''Denken, Lernen, Vergessen'' (Thinking, Learning, Forgetting) * 2002, ''Phänomen Stress'' (Phenomenon Stress) * 2002, ''Unsere Welt - ein vernetztes System'' (Our World - A Networked System) * 2007, ''The Art of interconnected Thinking. Ideas and Tools for Tackling Complexity'' (MCB) Vester is also the author of the software tool ''Sensitivity model'' and of several cybernetic games: * 1997 ''Ecopolicy – das kybernetische Strategiespiel'' (Ecopolicy - The Cybernetic Strategy Game) * 1980/1996 ''Ökolopoly. Ein kybernetisches Umweltspiel'' (Ecopoly - A Cybernetic Environment Game)

References

External links

*
Professional Biography of Dr. Vester
(English)
Frederic Vester in the ''Saarländischen Biografien''
(German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Vester, Frederic 1925 births 2003 deaths Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz alumni University of Paris alumni Cyberneticists German biochemists People from Saarbrücken Systems biologists Academic staff of Bundeswehr University Munich Academic staff of the University of St. Gallen Recipients of the Saarland Order of Merit German expatriates in France German expatriates in the United Kingdom German expatriates in the United States University of Hamburg alumni