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Thinkers about Management
Edited by Joyce Heames
Introduction
Herbert Simon was born in 1916 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His father was an electrical engineer and his mother was a pianist. He entered the University of Chicago in 1933 and completed his BA in 1936 and later his PhD in 1943, both in Political Science. He is often referred to as a "behavioral economist" ([36], [37] Augier and March, 2002, 2004). Simon's first academic job was in 1939 as the director of a research project that lasted three years and was conducted for the University of California at Berkeley. Later, he taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology and became involved with the Cowel Commission. Most notable was his career at Carnegie Mellon University where he joined in 1947 and continued until the last day of his life. While at Carnegie Mellon, Simon was instrumental in founding several departments and colleges including: Humanities and Social Sciences, Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Psychology, School of Computer Science, and more importantly, the creation of the "cognitive group" ([10] Kalantari and Wigfall, 2001).
Simon received the Nobel Memorial Award in 1978 for his research on "decision making process" within economic organizations. He also received many other awards and recognitions, including the A.M. Turing Award for his contribution to computer science in 1975, the National Medal of Science in 1986, the Dwight Waldo Award, the John Gaus Lecture Award, the James Madison Award from the American Political Science Association, the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in Psychological Science from the American Psychological Association, the American Society of Public Administration Award, as well as the American Economic Association Award.
Simon received 24 honorary doctoral degrees from many colleges and universities, including Harvard University, Columbia University, Yale University, and the University of Chicago. He published 27 books and close to 1,000 articles on different subjects and in a variety of disciplines. He can be viewed as a barometer of change for several disciples during his productive life.
Simon is claimed by many disciplines such as political science, public administration, administrative theory, philosophy, economics, computer science, psychology, and artificial intelligence (AI) to be the founder and major contributor. His lifelong contribution to those disciplines makes him a unique personality among the pioneers...