John H. Milsum (August 15, 1925 – November 9, 2008) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

control engineer who was Professor and first Director at the Biomedical Engineering Department of the

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

in Montreal, and a professor at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

. Milsum is known for his book "Biological Control Systems Analysis" from 1966, which is a classic in the field and has been translated into many languages.History of biomedical engineering at McGill
, Retrieved 25 April 2008.

Biography

Milsum was born in England. He received his Ph.D. in 1957 in

control engineering Control engineering, also known as control systems engineering and, in some European countries, automation engineering, is an engineering discipline that deals with control systems, applying control theory to design equipment and systems with d ...

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 ...

. He started working at the National Research Council in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

from 1950 to 1961. In 1961 he came to McGill as the first Abitibi professor of

in the Department 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 ...

. In 1972 Milsum moved to the

(UBC) to become the Imperial Oil professor of

General Systems ''General Systems: Yearbook of the Society for General Systems Research'', known as ''General Systems'', is the first annual journal in the field of systems science initiated in 1956, and initially edited by Ludwig von Bertalanffy and Anatol Rapo ...

and a professor in the Department of

Health Care Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

and

Epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...

. He was instrumental in the creation of UBC's Institute of Health Promotion Research in 1990. He was president of the

International Society for the Systems Sciences The International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) is a worldwide organization for systems sciences. The overall purpose of the ISSS is: to promote the development of conceptual frameworks based on general system theory, as well as their im ...

in 1967-68. And he was a member of the National Research Council in Ottawa. In 1986, he was bestowed the honour of Emeritus Member of the

Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society The Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society (CMBES) is a technical society representing the biomedical engineering community in Canada. CMBES is supported by its membership which consists of biomedical engineers, biomedical engineer ...

. Milsum died peacefully at home in 2008 November, at age 83.Memories of Dr. John H. Milsum
Accessed Feb 5, 2010.

Publications

* 1955. ''Preliminary investigation of transient cooling of aircraft electronic equipment using heat storage material''. with William G. Nance. * 1957. ''Problems in optimizing of stochastically-disturbed, saturating regulators, employing a binary error criterion''. Thesis Sc.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. * 1966. ''Biological Control Systems Analysis''. McGraw Hill * 1968. ''Positive Feedback''. (editor) Pergamon Press Ltd. * 1984. ''Health, stress, and illness : a systems approach''. New York : Praeger. Articles: * 1972, "The Hierarchical Basis for Living Systems," in George J. Klir (ed.), ''Trends in General Systems Theory''. New York. 1972. * 1973, "On Optimization of Health Care Systems". in: ''Optimization Techniques'' 1973: 335-346 * 1973, "Hospital admission systems: their evaluation and management". with E. Turban and I. Vertinsky in: ''Management Science''. * 1985, "A model of the eustress system for health/illness". in: ''Behavioral Science''. Vol 30, Issue 4, Pages 179 - 186.

References

External links

History of biomedical engineering at McGill

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milsum, John 1924 births 2008 deaths Control theorists MIT School of Engineering alumni Canadian systems scientists Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Academic staff of McGill University British emigrants to Canada British expatriates in the United States Presidents of the International Society for the Systems Sciences