World Dynamics

Jay Wright Forrester was born on his family's cattle ranch in Nebraska on July 14, 1918. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Nebraska and graduate studies in electrical engineering at M.I.T. In 1940, he went to work at M.I.T.'s new Servomechanisms Laboratory, doing research in servomechanism theory and feedback control systems. During World War II, the laboratory did much of its work for the military by developing servomechanisms for controlling radar antennas and gun mounts. He worked for M.I.T. for about 70 years. His insights into both computing and organizations helped give rise to a field of computer modeling that examines the behavior of things as specific as a corporation and as broad as global growth. He wrote several books including Urban Dynamics, World Dynamics, Industrial Dynamics, and Principles of Systems. He died from complications of prostate cancer on November 16, 2016 at the age of 98.