Celebrating Women’s International Day
Over the past several decades, more women have become part of the System Dynamics field, greatly increasing gender diversity in our discipline. We have many amazing, inspiring, brilliant, and visionary female leaders. Today we highlight women in the field who have published books related to System Dynamics and systems thinking, although this list is not exhaustive.
Sustainability | Environment
- Sylvi Ulli-Beer: Governance dynamics of energy technology change: Analyzing socio-technical transitions towards sustainability.
- Allyson Beall and Kara Whitman: Environmental Science and Sustainable Solutions: Lab and Field Manual.
- Krystyna Stave, Goraw Goshu, Shimelis Aynalem (Editors): Social and Ecological System Dynamics: Characteristics, Trends, and Integration in the Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia.
Systems Thinking
- Derek Cabrera and Laura Cabrera: Systems Thinking Made Simple: New Hope for Solving Wicked Problems.
- Joy Richmond, Lees Stuntz, Kathy Richmond, and Joanne Egner (Editors): Tracing Connections: Voices of Systems Thinkers.
Pre-College Education | Children’s Books | Teacher’s Manuals
- Anne LaVigne and Lees Stuntz: Model Mysteries: An Exploration of Vampires, Zombies, and Other Fantastic Scenarios to Make the World a Better Place.
- Rob Quaden, Alan Ticotsky, and Debra Lyneis: The Shape of Change including Stocks and Flows.
- Demi (Charlotte Dumaresq Hunt): One Grain of Rice.
- Diana Fisher: Lessons in Mathematics: A Dynamic Approach and Modeling Dynamic Systems: Lessons for a First Course.
- Jennifer Andersen, Anne LaVigne, and The Creative Learning Exchange: Systems in Motion: Exploring Complexity through an Interdisciplinary Lens.
- Linda Booth Sweeney: When a Butterfly Sneezes, Connected Wisdom: Living Stories About Living Systems, and When the Snow Falls.
Applied System Dynamics and Systems Thinking | Methodology | Organizational Change
- Inge Bleijenbergh, Hubert Korzilius, Etiënne Rouwette (Editors): Methods, Model Building and Management: A liber amicorum for Jac Vennix.
- Michele Battle-Fisher: Application of Systems Thinking to Health Policy and Public Health Ethics: Public Health and Private Illness.
- Nalini Pillay, Andries Botha, and Josephine Musango: Applied System Dynamics With South African Case Studies. Watch Nalini Pillay and Andries Botha discuss lessons from their book in this Seminar Recording.
- Nancy Roberts, David F. Andersen, Ralph M. Deal, William A. Shaffer: Introduction to Computer Simulation: A System Dynamics Modeling Approach.
- Nici Zimmermann: Dynamics of Drivers of Organizational Change.
- Regine Bendl, Inge Bleijenbergh, Elina Henttonen, Albert J. Mills (Editors): The Oxford Handbook of Diversity in Organizations.
Historical
- Deborah Andersen and David Andersen: Theories of Decision Making: An Annotated Bibliography.
- MIT Artificial Intelligence Group: John McCarthy, Robert Brayton, Daniel Edwards, Phyllis Fox, Louis Hodes, David Luckham, Klim Maling, David Park, Stephen Russel: LISP I: Programmer’s Manual
- In 1959, Phyllis Fox and Alexander Pugh wrote the first version of DYNAMO (DYNAmic MOdels) and the system dynamics language that became the industry standard for over thirty years).
Use the button below If you’d like to add an author and/or book to our bibliography:
Donella Meadows
“We, humans, are smart enough to have created complex systems and amazing productivity; surely we are also smart enough to make sure that everyone shares our bounty, and surely we are smart enough to sustainably steward the natural world upon which we all depend.”
Donella (Dana) Meadows was an inspiring leader, scholar, writer, teacher, a Pew Scholar in Conservation and Environment, and a MacArthur Fellow, and was one of the most influential environmental thinkers of the twentieth century. After receiving a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard, she joined a team at MIT applying the relatively new tools of System Dynamics to global problems. While Donella Meadows researched and wrote about global problems, she herself also practiced local solutions, a living personification of Rene Dubos’ famous expression, “Think Globally, Act Locally.”
Donella’s ideas, insights, teachings, environmental leadership, and belief in the capacity of humans to create a sustainable world continue to inspire and motivate us today.
Visit the Donella Meadows Project by the Academy for Systems Change to learn more about Dana’s life and work.
Donella Meadows wrote and co-authored several books, including the following:
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