Brief Biographies of Officers and Policy Council Members, 2008

President: James M. Lyneis (2008)

James Lyneis is a Professor of Practice in the Social Science and Policy Studies Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he teaches system dynamics and economics. He is also a Senior Lecturer at MIT, where he teaches system dynamics and System and Project Management.  His research interests include applications of system dynamics to project management, business strategy, and economics.  Prior to joining the WPI faculty, he worked for 25 years in the Business Dynamics Practice of PA Consulting Group (formerly known as Pugh-Roberts Associates).  At Pugh-Roberts, he specialized in the application of system dynamics techniques to business strategy, market analysis, project management, and management training, and worked in the telecommunications, electric utility, aerospace, and financial services industries.  Prior to consulting, he was an Assistant Professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He is author of the book Corporate Planning and Policy Design: A System Dynamics Approach, as well as numerous journal articles.  Dr. Lyneis has a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Michigan and undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Industrial Management from MIT.

President Elect: Erling Moxnes (2008)

Erling Moxnes is Professor in System Dynamics in the System Dynamics Group at the University of Bergen, Norway. He has a Masters degree in Control Theory from the Norwegian Institute of Technology and a PhD in System Dynamics from Dartmouth College, USA. Previously he has worked as a researcher at the Christian Michelsen Institute and as Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Research in Economics and Business Administration. He has been a member of the SD policy council; he is a thread chair for the SD conferences, and a reviewer for the SD Review.  A main theme in his research has been misperceptions of systems and their dynamics and connected learning problems. Together with Powersim he has developed a program package called SOPS to perform advanced stochastic dynamic programming in simulation models. As other System Dynamicists he has worked and published in a variety of fields such as system dynamics, economics, management, policy science, ecology, economic psychology, climate change, renewable resources management, energy markets, and energy policy.

Past President: Qifan Wang (2008)

Qifan Wang is an Educationist & Writer; b December, 1936 China; m Lijuan Yu, two S; Educ  Elec Engg Tsinghua Univ; Lecturer, Tsinghua Univ 1959-80; Assoc Prof, Shanghai inst of Mech Engg 1985-87, Prof 1987; Prof, Fudan Univ 1988-; Visiting Scholar, MITSloan Oct.1981-83, Life Member 1983-; President: National SD Soc of China &Chinese Chapter; Director, Systems Engg Asscn of China; Membr, Policy Council of SD Soc 1986-89; Assoc Editor, Journal of SD Soc; Editor, Journal of Theory & Practice on Systems Engg; He successfully hosted the 2005 and 2007 International Multi-Conference of Systems Science, Management Science and SD on Sustainable Development & Complex Systems with the intention of making it a bi-annual event, he was the Chief Editor of the Proceedings of the Conferences.; publs- He has hundreds of publications to his credit. Theory and Application of System Dynamics(1987), System Dynamics(in Chinese, 1988,revised 1994 & 2007), Dynamics Analysis of Socio-Economic Complex Systems (in Chinese,1992), New Frontier of Management Science and Decision-Making Science (in Chinese,1993), Advanced System Dynamics  (in Chinese,1995); Awards National Sc & Techy Progress, Shanghai Municipal Sc & Techy Progress, National Excellent Book of Sc & Techy, National Model Teacher 1986.

Founding President: Jay W. Forrester

Professor Forrester directed the System Dynamics Program at the MIT Sloan School of Management until 1989.  He is currently applying system dynamics to understanding economic behavior and is also developing materials for system dynamics as a foundation for a new kind of kindergarten through grade 12 education.  Forrester received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska in 1939, and the M.Sc degree from M.I.T. in 1945 and has been awarded honorary doctorates from nine universities.  Among his honors:  Valdemar Poulsen Gold Medal from the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences (1969); Medal of Honor, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1972); National Inventors Hall of Fame (1979); James R. Killian Faculty Achievement Award, M.I.T. (1987); National Medal of Technology (1989).  Before creating the field of system dynamics, Professor Forrester was a pioneer in the early development of digital computers and invented the random-access, coincident-current magnetic storage that, for two decades, was the standard memory device for digital computers.

Secretary: David Packer (2007 - 2008)

David Packer was brought up in the Midwest of the United States, coming from Iowa to MIT where he earned Bachelor's degress in both Electrical Engineering and Humanities and engineering.  After a brief stint in the army he returned to MIT's Sloan School where he worked for Jay Forrester in the budding system dynamics (then industrial dynamics) group, earned his Masters degree, and published his thesis, a study of growth dynamics. He later became a graduate of The Executive Program of the Darden School at the University of Virginia.  David left MIT to serve Digital Equipment Corporation for thirty yeas, in a set of senior Financial and Information Management positions in both the United States and Europe, while the company became a major player in the computer business.  He left Digital to be CFO and consultant in a consulting firm and is now a founding member of The Systems Thinking Collaborative, a networked consulting partnership formed to bring systems thinking and system dynamics to bear on the issues of a wide variety of organizations.  David has been on the Board of Directors of several for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, and an active volunteer for MIT and others. 

Vice President At Large: Joel Rahn (2007-2009)

Joel Rahn is retired since 2003 from a professorship in the Department of Operations and Decision Systems in the Faculty of Administration at Laval University. Born in Canada, he did a B.Sc. and M.Sc. at University of Toronto and completed a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at MIT in 1972. He did two years post-doctoral work in the Natural Resources Research Group at Dartmouth under the direction of Dennis Meadows and Dana Meadows before joining the faculty at Laval. His main interests are in methodology development, classical and alternative. He is currently Chairman of the Dana Meadows Award Committee and member of the Strategy Development Committee.

Vice President Chapter Activities: Tim Haslett (2008-2010)

Vice President Electronic Presence: Robert L. Eberlein (2006-2008)

Bob Eberlein consults and does software development for Ventana Systems, Inc. He was born in the United States, received his Bachelor's degree from the University of British Columbia and a PhD from the Sloan School  of Management at MIT in 1984. As a graduate student he worked on the System Dynamics National Model project under Jay Forrester and has been involved in the field ever since. He is a founding member of the System Dynamics Society and has served as Secretary, Vice President Meetings, President and, most recently, Vice President Electronic Presence. As VP for Electronic Presence Bob intends to continue the development of web based support for System Dynamics community including the submission system, mailing lists and a System Dynamics wiki.

Vice President Finance: David F. Andersen (2008-2010)

David Andersen is Distinguished Service Professor of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Information Science at the Rockefeller College, University at Albany.  His work centers on applying system dynamics, systems thinking, and information technology approaches to problems in the public, not-for-profit, and private sectors.  He has served as a technical consultant to public and not-for-profit agencies in the federal, state, and local sectors as well as corporate clients in North America and Europe.  Professor Andersen is co-author of  Introduction to Computer Simulation:  The System Dynamics Modeling Approach and Government Information Management as well as over 40 journal articles, book chapters, monographs, and edited volumes.  He holds a Ph.D. in Management from MIT's Sloan School (1977) with a specialization in System Dynamics as well as an AB in Mathematics and Urban Studies from Dartmouth College (1970).

Vice President Meetings: Andreas Größler (2007-2009)

Andreas Größler is Associate Professor at the Methodology Department, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. His research interests lie in the area of strategic operations management, individual and organisational decision making, and the effectiveness of organisational interventions. He was Program Chair of the 2006 international conference
of the System Dynamics Society and was elected Vice President Meetings of the Society in 2007. Dr. Größler has conducted various industry projects applying system dynamics, in particular in the software and airline industries.

Vice President Member Services: Deborah Campbell (2006-2008)

Vice President Publications: Deborah Lines Andersen (2006-2008)

Deborah Lines Andersen is an associate professor of Information Studies and Informatics at the University at Albany, College of Computing and Information.  Her PhD is in Information Science. In her recent term as VP Publications a major project was to spearhead the digitization of Dynamica. The next major project is to digitize the original System Dynamics Newsletter (Industrial Dynamics), and the earliest copies of the System Dynamics Newsletters so that they will be available online to all. Future work will include finishing the newsletter digitization project,
editing the System Dynamics Bibliography, and creating a finding guide for SD materials.

System Dynamics Review Executive Editor: Brian C. Dangerfield

Brian Dangerfield is Professor of Systems Modelling at the University of Salford, UK.  He was educated in the UK and holds a bachelor's degree in Economics, Statistics & Operational Research from Swansea University, a post-graduate diploma in Industrial Administration from Bradford University and a PhD from Salford University.  Brian's early career was spent as an Operational Research Analyst in the brewing industry. He then joined the University of Liverpool as a Research  Assistant and latterly Research Fellow in the School of Business Studies and worked on research projects for HM Treasury and the (then) British Steel Corporation.  Subsequently he was appointed to a lectureship at Salford University where he furthered his interests in modelling and analysis of economic and business systems. He was a founder-member of the Centre for Operational Research & Applied Statistics  in 1987. It is now part of Salford  Business School. He was promoted to a personal Chair at Salford in 2000.

Brian was awarded the UK Operational Research Society's President's Medal in 1991 and their Goodeve Medal in 2005.  Since 2002 he has been Executive Editor of the System Dynamics Review. His work using SD has included models applied to the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS and economies of scale and capacity management in the steel industry. In 2005 he completed a major SD-based economic modelling project for the government of the State of Sarawak in East Malaysia.  His current projects include an analysis of competitiveness in the UK construction industry, a collaboration between three universities and with a contract budget of £1.5 million.

Executive Director: Roberta L. Spencer

Roberta Spencer has served as Executive Director of the Society since 1997.

Policy Council (2006-2008):

Gloria Pérez Salazar

Gloria Pérez is Associate Professor of Industrial Enginneering Department at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Monterrey México. She has a BSc in Computer Systems Engineering, an MSc in Systems and Quality from the Tecnologico de Monterrey. She has carried out several projects with dynamic models focused in the study of the integration of industrial clusters. Such is the case in the car industry, car parts, electrical appliances, aerospace, biotechnology,
and others.  Gloria has been working on the development of the Latin American Chapter.
Among these efforts is the organization of the First Latin American Systems Dynamics Conference in April, 2003. So far, this Conference has taken place at Chile (2004), Colombia (2005), México(2006) and Argentina(2007). She is also the administrator of the Latin American distribution list and the webpage (http://dinamica-sistemas.mty.itesm.mx).

Santanu Roy

Dr. Santanu Roy has done his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Management from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur and integrated Master of Science (M.S.) from IIT Delhi. He has more than 25 years of experience in research, consultancy and teaching. He has published a large number of papers in journals of repute such as the International Journal of Operations & Production Management, International Journal of Technology Management and Sustainable Development, Scientometrics, International Journal of System Dynamics and Policy Planning, R&D Management, Artificial Intelligence and Society, Industry and Higher Education, Journal of Information Management and Scientometrics, Asia Pacific Management Review, Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, Manpower Journal, Journal of Rural Development, Productivity, and Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research.  

He has presented papers in many international and national conferences and has visited many countries including USA, UK, Australia, France, Germany, Norway, Italy, Turkey, and Malaysia to attend international conferences and in connection with his research work. He has carried out many sponsored research and consultancy assignments.
He engages classes in the subjects of quantitative techniques for business decisions (statistics and operations research), operations management, service operations management, project management and technology management.  Dr. Roy's research interests include system dynamics modeling; technology and innovation management; technology transfer; SMEs and cluster development; multi-criteria decision-making; S&T and innovation indicators; research evaluation; personal value systems; and work climate.

Ali Kerem Saysel

Ali Kerem Saysel is an associate professor in the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Boğaziçi University, İstanbul, Turkey. He studied industrial engineering and got his Ph.D. in 1999 on environmental sciences from the same university. Between 2001-2004 he was a full time faculty member at the University of Bergen in Norway, system dynamics group. Dr. Saysel’s research and teaching focuses on applications of system dynamics on environmental and resource management. He worked extensively on modeling and simulation of the problems of irrigated agriculture and used simulation gaming as a method for climate polciy analysis. He teaches several courses on environmental modeling, sustainable development and decision experimentation, all fundamentally based on the system dynamics method. Dr. Saysel can be reached at his personal web site, www.boun.edu.tr/ali.saysel.

Krystyna Stave

Krys Stave is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) where she teaches system dynamics modeling for environmental management at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She advises master’s and doctoral research in system dynamics. Krys was first introduced to system dynamics during her Master’s degree program at the Resource Policy Center at Dartmouth College. She uses system dynamics in her research to improve stakeholder participation in environmental management at all levels, from building public understanding of water, wetland, waste and air quality management problems to helping resource managers from different agencies collaborate in land use planning. Most of her modeling projects use a group model building approach. She has been an active participant in System Dynamics Society conferences.

Policy Council (2007-2009):

Renan Jia

JIA Ren’an , Professor of Nanchang University, China. Doctoral Advisor for Management Science and Engineering, Director of Systems Engineering Research Institute in Nanchang University, Director of the PhD Program of Management Science and Engineering. Council member of the International System Dynamics Society, Council Member of the System Engineering Association of China, Vice Director of System Dynamics Special Committee of System Engineering Association of China, Standing Vice Director of the Jiangxi Systems Engineering Association. JIA Ren’an contributes a lot to teaching and research of System Dynamics, and has gained great achievements in teaching and research.

Özge Pala

Warren Tignor

Khaled Wahba

Policy Council (2008-2010):

Enzo Bivona

Enzo Bivona is presently Assistant Professor in Business Management at the University of Palermo and Vice-President of the CED4 - System Dynamics Group. He has a PhD in Business and Administration (University of Catania, Italy) and a Master Phil. in System Dynamics  (University of Bergen, Norway). He collaborates at the Master course on ‘Managing Business Growth through System Dynamics & Accounting Models’ and at the International Doctoral programme on “Model Based Public Planning, Policy Design, and Management” at the University of Palermo. His research activities are mainly focused on small business growth management, matching accounting with system dynamics models and management control systems. Recently he is doing research on the area of Intellectual Capital and business performance and Public Management. He is author of different microworlds and articles on the above research fields. He serves as reviewer of the System Dynamics Review.

Burak Güneralp

Burak Güneralp is a postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University. His interests focus on the underlying causes of urban land use change and its impacts on the environment. His broader research interests include spatio-temporal analysis and modeling, socio-economic/socio-ecological management problems (in relation to sustainability), and formal analysis of structure-behavior relations in dynamic models.
Burak employs (spatial) dynamic modeling, statistical analysis, remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS) to study the significance of social, economic and political drivers of urban land use change in developing countries, particularly in China and India.  Burak received his BS and MS with specialization on System Dynamics from Boğaziçi University, İstanbul, Turkey. He completed his Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Burak took part in organization of several System Dynamics Society activities since 1997. He was a member of the organization team of the 1997 International System Dynamics Conference in İstanbul and organized the 5th PhD Colloquium of the 2004 International System Dynamics Conference in Oxford. He served in 2005 as the president of the Student Chapter of the System Dynamics Society.

Imrana Umar

Imrana A Umar is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Powersim Solutions, Inc. Prior to founding Powersim Solutions, Inc., Umar worked for Powersim Corporation from 1992 to 2001 serving in various senior management positions, as well as serving on the board of directors of the company. He has several years experience in developing, selling and implementing system dynamics-based simulation technology solutions in a wide variety of industries and application areas for major organizations in both private and public sectors around world. Mr. Umar teaches short management courses on Strategic Visioning and Leadership.  He is a member of the System Dynamics Advisory Board, Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Worcester, Massachusetts. Mr. Umar holds a B. Sc. (Honors) in Business Administration with a major in Banking and Finance; B.Sc. in Information and Computer Science; M. Phil. in Information and Computer Science, focusing on the System Dynamics Methodology and Model-based Policy Analyses, and has a 3 years of Ph.D. studies in System Dynamics from the University of Bergen.

Lars Weber

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last updated by rsl 07/28/08