Herbert A. Simon | |
---|---|
![]() Simon c. 1981 | |
Born | Herbert Alexander Simon June 15, 1916 |
Died | February 9, 2001 (aged 84) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Education | University of Chicago (BA, PhD) |
Known for | Bounded rationality Satisficing Information Processing Language Logic Theorist General Problem Solver |
Spouse | |
Children | 3 |
Awards |
|
Scientific career | |
Fields | Economics Artificial intelligence Computer science Political science |
Institutions | Carnegie Mellon University |
Doctoral advisor | Henry Schultz |
Other academic advisors | Rudolf Carnap Nicholas Rashevsky Harold Lasswell Charles Merriam[1] John R. Commons[2] |
Doctoral students |
Herbert Alexander Simon (June 15, 1916 – February 9, 2001) was an American scholar whose work influenced the fields of computer science, economics, and cognitive psychology. His primary research interest was decision-making within organizations and he is best known for the theories of "bounded rationality" and "satisficing".[5][6] He received the Turing Award in 1975 and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1978.[7][8] His research was noted for its interdisciplinary nature, spanning the fields of cognitive science, computer science, public administration, management, and political science.[9] He was at Carnegie Mellon University for most of his career, from 1949 to 2001,[10] where he helped found the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, one of the first such departments in the world.
Notably, Simon was among the pioneers of several modern-day scientific domains such as artificial intelligence, information processing, decision-making, problem-solving, organization theory, and complex systems. He was among the earliest to analyze the architecture of complexity and to propose a preferential attachment mechanism to explain power law distributions.[11][12]
Studies and models of decision-making are the themes that unify most of Simon's contributions.