A MacArthur Fellowship: John Henry Holland

1992

John Henry Holland, who built the study of genetic algorithms and complex adaptive systems at the University of Michigan, was born in Fort Wayne on 2 February 1929, the son of a Russian-Polish immigrant engineer, and was raised largely in western Ohio. He took a bachelor's degree in physics at MIT in 1950 and, in 1959, what Michigan counts as its first doctorate in computer science. At Ann Arbor he founded and led the Center for the Study of Complex Systems and wrote the books — Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems first among them — that made "genetic algorithm" a term of science. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named him a MacArthur Fellow in 1992, the honor the press calls the genius grant; the Franklin Institute's Louis E. Levy Medal (1961) and the Harold Pender Award (1999) stand on either side of it in his record. He died at Ann Arbor on 9 August 2015. Fort Wayne's claim on Holland is the birthplace, stated exactly: born here, formed as a scientist elsewhere. It is enough to put the city's name in the MacArthur roster.

Sources:

1. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Fellows directory — John H. Holland, MacArthur Fellow, 1992.
2. Communications of the ACM, "John H. Holland 1929–2015" (November 2015) — born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1929; the 1992 MacArthur Fellowship; the first computer science Ph.D. at Michigan, 1959.
3. Physics Today, obituary of John Henry Holland — born 2 February 1929 in Fort Wayne, Indiana.