Charles François (systems scientist)

Charles François (born September 5, 1922 ), is a Belgian administrator, editor and scientist in the field of cybernetics, systems theory and systems science, internationally known for his main work the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics.

Biography

Charles François was born in Belgium in 1922, and studied consular and commercial sciences at Brussels Free University. After the Second World War he emigrated to the Belgian Congo, where he stayed from 1945 to 1960, at first as an administrative officer in government and later on creating and developing his own commercial business. Later, he moved to South America to Argentina in 1963, and managed the commercial Office of the Belgian Embassy in Buenos Aires from 1966 to his retirement in 1987.

François founded the Group for the Study of Integrated Systems (GESI), Argentine National Division of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS), in 1976, being presently its Honorary President. He is an Honorary Member of the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR) and founding editor of the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, Honorary President of the Latin American Association of Systemics (ALAS), Honorary Professor of ITBA, Buenos Aires, and visiting Professor at various universities in Argentina.

He became a member of systemic boards and integrates the editorial boards of various journals on Systems and Cybernetics.

In 2007 he received from the American Society for Cybernetics, the Norbert Wiener golden medal as a tribute for his work on cybernetics.

Work

In 1952 François came in contact with cybernetics through Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics. In 1958 he joined the Society for General Systems Research now the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS). Since 1970, François has participated in numerous meetings of various systems and cybernetics societies. Many courses and seminars on systemics and cybernetics were given by Charles François in Argentina and also in Perú at the IAS; the last edition of them is his "Curso de Teoría General de Sistemas y Cibernética con representaciones gráficas", a CD-Rom with more than 280 drawings edited by GESI in 2007.

Publications

François has published some books and dozens of articles and papers:

Books

• 1976, Cybernétique et Prospective, Namur : International Association of Cybernetics, 1976.
• 1978, Introducción à la Prospectiva Buenos Aires : Pleamar, 1978.
• 1985, El uso de Modelos Sistémicos-Cibernéticos como metodología científica, (Systemic-Cybernetic Models used as scientific methodology)
• 1986, Enfoques Sistémicos en el Estudio de las Sociedades (Systemic Approaches to the Study of Societies).
• 1992, Diccionario de Teoría General de Sistemas y Cibernética, Buenos Aires : GESI. The first work of its kind in Spanish (475 terms).
• 1997, International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, edited by Charles François, München: K. G. Saur. The Academic board of this Encyclopedia includes members such as: John N. Warfield, Robert Trappl, Ranulph Glanville, Anthony Judge, Markus Schwaninger, Heiner Benking, Matjaz Mulej, and Gerhard Chroust. (2nd volume 2004)

Articles & papers, a selection:

• 1982, "A systemic study of socio-historical systems", paper 1982.
• 1999, "Systemics and Cybernetics in a Historical Perspective, ".
• 2000, Hidden long term systemic constraints in present day socio-economical global mutation of mankind, paper.
• 2002, Foreign Debt mechanism: The "Cow in the corral" paper.
• 2004, The need for an integrated systemic-cybernetic language for concepts and models in complex and vague subject areas:... lecture at the presentation of the 2nd volume of the second edition of the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, Humboldt University, Saur Library, Berlin, 2004.

External links

• Homepage from Charles François at the IFSR, with many links.