The Award
The Jay Wright Forrester Award is presented as often as once annually for the best contribution to the field of System Dynamics during the preceding five years.
Papers, articles, books, research or consulting reports, theses or other written material that have been published or are in publishable form in the English language, in the original or after translation, are eligible for consideration.
The Prize
The recipient(s) receive(s) a commemorative plaque and US$5,000.
Jay Wright Forrester Committee
John Sterman 2023-2027
Shayne Gary 2022-2026
Elke Husemann 2022-2026
Khalid Saeed 2021-2025
David Lane (Chair) 2019-2023
guidelines
The Society encourages nominations from the broad System Dynamics community. We rely on high-quality, thoughtful nominations, and we urge you to submit a nomination for any work that you deem worthy of consideration. Once received, the Awards Committee reviews the nominations, which may include follow-up with the nominator, and creates a shortlist from which it may select a winner.
Nominations for the Forrester Award may be made by anyone who uses System Dynamics or follows the progress of the field. A nomination must include the following information:
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The name and contact information for the nominator
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The name and contact information for the nominee(s)
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A complete citation of the work nominated
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A detailed letter supporting the nomination that explains why the nominated work represents the best contribution to the field of System Dynamics during the preceding five years
Submitting an effective nomination requires writing a letter that clearly conveys the importance and significance of the nominated work. Nominations should provide clear details about the motivation for nominating the specific work, and if helpful, cite books, papers, articles, research or consulting reports, theses, and/or other written material that might provide additional support. Prior awards included recipients recognized for papers, books, and software manuals.
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Papers and articles – Papers published in peer-reviewed journals supported most of the Jay Wright Forrester Awards given to date. Nominators should meaningfully assess the contribution of the chosen paper to System Dynamics, as well as to other fields or to specific policies as appropriate. If the author has written a series of papers on the same topic, then the nominator should select the most deserving paper from the portfolio, describe its individual merits, and provide further context about how the work fits into the portfolio of work and the merits of the portfolio.
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Books – Books considered for the award should fully explain an important set of ideas or fully communicates a coherent research theme, without the need for nominators to cite a variety of related work by the same or other authors. Nominations should convincingly describe the substantive contributions made by the book to System Dynamics. Examples of books the Society recognized with a Jay Wright Forrester Award include Business Dynamics (2000), the definitive contemporary textbook in the field by John Sterman (winner in 2002) and Group Model Building (1996) by Jac Vennix (winner in 1999).
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Software – Software per se is not eligible for the Forrester Award, but important software contributions as described in a user’s guide or a book are eligible. For example, Barry Richmond received the 1989 Jay Wright Forrester Award for the Academic User’s Guide to STELLA, which described the highly innovative software and effectively communicated the core concepts of System Dynamics with clarity.
We look forward to receiving your nomination!