John Henry Holland (February 2, 1929 – August 9, 2015) was an American scientist and professor of

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. He was a pioneer in what became known as

genetic algorithms In computer science and operations research, a genetic algorithm (GA) is a metaheuristic inspired by the process of natural selection that belongs to the larger class of evolutionary algorithms (EA). Genetic algorithms are commonly used to g ...

Biography

John Henry Holland was born on February 2, 1929 in

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in Allen County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 at the 2020 census ...

, the elder child of son of Gustave A. Holland (b. July 24, 1896,

Russian Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish people, Polish State (polity), state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of ...

) and Mildred P. Gfroerer (b. July 1, 1901, Columbus Grove, Ohio). He had one younger sister, Shirley Ann "Hollie" Holland (born c. 1931). Holland studied physics at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

and received a B.S. degree in 1950. He then studied Mathematics at the

, receiving an M.S. in 1954. In 1959, he received the first computer science Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He was a Professor of

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

and Professor of

and

at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He held visiting positions at the Rowland Institute for Science and the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen () is a public university, public research university in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university had over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 consolidating several sci ...

. According to Carl Simon, professor of mathematics, economics, complex systems and public policy, ''"Holland is best known for his role as a founding father of the complex systems approach. In particular, he developed genetic algorithms and learning classifier systems. These foundational building blocks of an evolutionary approach to optimization are now included in all texts on optimization and programming."'' Holland was a member of the Board of Trustees and Science Board of the

Santa Fe Institute The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, inc ...

and a fellow of the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

. Holland received the 1961 Louis E. Levy Medal from The Franklin Institute, and the MacArthur Fellowship in 1992. He was profiled extensively in chapters 5 and 7 of the book ''Complexity'' (1993), by M. Mitchell Waldrop. Holland died on August 9, 2015, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.Complexity science pioneer John Holland passes away at 86
at santafe.edu

Work

Holland frequently lectured around the world on his own research, and on research and open questions in complex adaptive systems (CAS) studies. In 1975, he wrote the ground-breaking book on

, "Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems". He also developed Holland's schema theorem.

Publications

Holland authored a number of books about complex adaptive systems, including: *''Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems'' (1975, MIT Press) *''Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity'' (1995, Basic Books)
reviewed
by Mark S. Miller in

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...

*''Emergence: From Chaos to Order'' (1998, Basic Books) *''Signals and Boundaries: Building Blocks for Complex Adaptive Systems'' (2012, MIT Press) *''Complexity: A Very Short Introduction'' (2014, Oxford University Press) Articles, a selection: *"A universal computer capable of executing an arbitrary number of subprograms simultaneously", in: ''Proc. Eastern Joint Comp. Conf.'' (1959), pp. 108–112 *"Iterative circuit computers", in: ''Proc. Western Joint Comp. Conf.'' (1960), pp. 259–265 *"Outline for a logical theory of adaptive systems", in: ''JACM'', Vol 9 (1962), no. 3, pp. 279–314 *"Hierarchical descriptions, universal spaces, and adaptive systems", in: Arthur W. Burks, editor. ''Essays on Cellular Automata'' (1970). University of Illinois Press *"Using Classifier Systems to Study Adaptive Nonlinear Networks", in: Daniel L. Stein, editor. ''Lectures in the Sciences of Complexity'' (1989). Addison Wesley *"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'' (1990). MIT Press *"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'' (1992). MIT Press *"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'' (1994)
Addison-Wesley *"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'' (1995). Addison-Wesley *"Board Games", in: John Brockman, editor. ''The Greatest Inventions of the Past 2000 Years'' (2000). Phoenix *"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'' (2002). Weidenfeld & Nicolson

References

External links

Complexity science pioneer John Holland passes away at 86
at santafe.edu

''Echo'' project
of John Holland at the Santa Fe Institute {{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, John Henry 1929 births 2015 deaths 20th-century American psychologists American cognitive scientists Complex systems scientists University of Michigan Department of Psychology faculty University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni MacArthur Fellows American artificial intelligence researchers Santa Fe Institute people Researchers of artificial life