Harold Adrian Linstone is a German-American mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

, consultant

Consultant

A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...

, futurist and University Professor Emeritus of Systems Science

Systems science

Systems science is an interdisciplinary field of science that studies the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. It aims to develop interdisciplinary foundations, which are applicable in a variety of areas, such as engineering, biology, medicine and social sciences.Systems...

 at Portland State University

Portland State University

Portland State University is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1946, it has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state of Oregon, including undergraduate and graduate students. It is also the only public university in...

. He is a well known specialist in applied mathematics

Applied mathematics

Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry. Thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge...

.

Biography

Harold Linstone is a naturalized citizen of the United States born in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, Germany in 1924. He received an M.A. from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

, both in mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

.

Linstone worked for twenty-two years in industry, which included positions at Hughes Aircraft

Hughes Aircraft

Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes in Culver City, California as a division of Hughes Tool Company...

 and Lockheed Corporation

Lockheed Corporation

The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace company. Lockheed was founded in 1912 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995.-Origins:...

 since 1963, where he was Associate Director of Corporate Planning - Systems Analysis since 1968. He has been a consultant to many organizations, including the US House of Representatives, State of Alaska oil Spill Commission, Alberta Economic Development Commission, and UN Asian-Pacific center for Technology Transfer, as well as corporations such as IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

 and United Airlines

United Airlines

United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...

.

Later he has worked as University Professor of Systems Science at Portland State University

Portland State University

Portland State University is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1946, it has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state of Oregon, including undergraduate and graduate students. It is also the only public university in...

, where from 1970 to 1977 he has served as director of its Systems Science Ph.D. Program and Futures Research Institute. He has served as visiting Professor at the University of Rome, the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

, and Kiel University in West Germany.

Harold Linstone is editor-in-chief of the professional journal "Technological Forecasting and Social Change

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is a peer reviewed academic journal published by Elsevier which discusses futures studies, technology assessment, and technological forecasting. Articles focus on methodology and actual practice. Among other things, the journal is a major source of...

", which he founded in 1969, and which is now in its 56th volume. In 1993-94 he served as president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences

International Society for the Systems Sciences

The International Society for the Systems Sciences is a world-wide organization for systems sciences.- Overview :The initial purpose of the society was "to encourage the development of theoretical systems which are applicable to more than one of the traditional departments of knowledge."The idea...

. In 2003 he won the World Future Society’s Distinguished Service Award.

Publications

Books published by Linstone:

• 1975. The Delphi Method. Edited with Murray Turoff. Addison-Wesley.
• 1976. Futures Research: New Directions. Edited with W. H. Clive Simmonds. Mass. : Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.
• 1977. Technological Substitution: forecasting techniques and applications. Edited with Devendra Sahal. New York : Elsevier Pub. Co.
• 1984. Multiple Perspectives for Decision Making : bridging the gap between analysis and action. North-Holland : Elsevier Science Pub. Co."
• 1993. The Unbounded Mind : breaking the chains of traditional business thinking. With Ian Mitroff
  Ian Mitroff
  Ian I. Mitroff is an American organizational theorist, consultant and Professor Emeritus at the Marshall School of Business and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.- Biography :...
  
  . New York : Oxford University Press.
• 1994. The Challenge of the 21st Century: managing technology and ourselves in a shrinking world. With Ian I. Mitroff . Albany : State University of New York Press.
• 1999. Decision making for technology executives : using multiple perspectives to improved performance. Boston : Artech House.

External links

• Harold A. Linstone on www.isss.org.
• The Delphi Method: Techniques and Applications online.