The work of Professors George Richardson and David Anderson of the Department of Public Administration & Policy has helped bring the headquarters of the System Dynamics Society from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to the University. Richardson is the president-elect of the Society.
The Administration Committee of the System Dynamics Society met during the second week of November in Cambridge, Mass., and decided on the transfer. According to Richardson, “the University is known throughout the world for leadership in the public policy and public sector side of this field, whereas MIT is known for leadership in the corporate side. In either aspect, the goal has been to help practitioners in public policy solve real problems in an ever-more complex policy system.”
Anderson, a past president of the Society, said the choice of its move to Albany was made over two other prestigious contenders, the University of Bergen, in Norway, and the London School of Economics.
“Ultimately, the University has a number of serious people in the field through our research and training programs. And George, as president-elect, is the only two-time winner in the history of the Forrester Award, which is the highest honor in the field — based on the best published works over a five-year span.”
Richardson calls system dynamics a “computer-aided approach to policy analysis and design.” Its investigators build complex models of policy systems that require the development of creative new policy initiatives — initiatives that are likely to be needed in the future.
“We apply these initiatives to a simulated world before we subject reality to them,” said Richardson.
“System dynamics as a field is central to both our masters and doctoral programs,” said Anderson “At the Ph.D. level, system dynamics is one of the key approaches in our Decision and Policy Sciences Concentration and in the past several years two of our national award-winning dissertations — Kevin O-Neil and Sauwakon Ratanawijitrasin — have used system dynamics. At the master’s level the newly designed Professional Applications sequence builds upon system dynamics and systems thinking in its first simulation-based exercise. And next spring we are adding for the first time a masters course in systems thinking.”
Anderson said the moving of the society to Albany reinforces this emerging center of excellence in both the department’s research and teaching.
It also, he said, brings the organization’s travels full-circle. “The original meeting that led to the formation of the Systems Dynamics Society was held in 1981 at the Rensselaerville Institute, hosted by both Albany and MIT,” he said.
“In addition, there is another fitting bit of justice to the Society coming here this year. The conference manager for that initial meeting back in 1981 was Roberta Spencer. Right after that she left the University’s public policy department to raise a family. But this past March she was hired again by the University as a research coordinator for our group.
“Now she will become the Society’s administrator here at Albany.”
Frank Thompson, dean of the Graduate School of Public Affairs, said the re-location of the Society to the University represents a continuing growth of world-wide prestige for the campus’s programs in public policy and administration.
“Among other things, this demonstrates the leading role that our faculty plays in this important field,” said Thompson. “I’m proud of the excellence that we have achieved in this area and very grateful to Professors Anderson and Richardson for their contribution and leadership.”
Sidney Altman, winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize in chemistry, is a molecular biologist whose research focuses on the structure and function of genetic material, especially RNA. Professor Altman shared the Nobel Prize with Thomas R. Cech of the University of Colorado for discovering in 1978 that RNA is not just a passive carrier of genetic code but can actively engage in chemical reactions. The surprising finding that RNA can function as an enzyme suggests that primitive cells might have used RNA instead of proteins to control biochemical processes, thus elucidating a mystery of evolution and providing a possible new avenue for fighting viruses that cause AIDS and other devastating illnesses.
His many honors include election in 1990 to the American Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and selection in 1991 to present the prestigious DeVane lecture series at Yale on the topic “Understanding Life in the Laboratory.” The Montreal, Canada, native received a B.S. degree in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1960 and a Ph.D. degree in biophysics from the University of Colorado in 1967 under the direction of Professor Leonard S. Lermen. He was s Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fund fellow 1967-69 at Harvard University and a visiting research fellow 1970-71 at Cambridge University in the laboratory of Francis H. C. Crick.
Professor Altman joined the Yale faculty in 1971 and served as chairman of the biology department from 1983 to 1985 and as dean of Yale College, the University’s undergraduate college, from 1985 to 1989.
Dr. Altman will lecture on “Substrate Recognition
by RNaseP: Basic and Applied Studies,” on Tuesday, December 3 at 4:10 pm in BIO Room 248. For information contact David Shub at 442-4324 or email at [email protected].
After New York’s capital punishment statute took effect on Sept. 1, 1995, School of Criminal Justice Professor James Acker extended an invitation to former members of his graduate seminar on the subject to form discussion group.
“A large enough æcritical mass’ of people attended the initial meeting in early 1996 to make future meetings feasible,” said Acker of the now established Death Penalty Interest Group (DPIG).
Today, DPIG is composed of students and faculty who share a common interest in death penalty issues. It is non-ideological (one need neither be for nor against the death penalty to participate), highly informal, and meets at regular intervals to discuss research ideas and share other interests related to capital punishment.
“Students participate in this group without the expectation of academic credit, financial remuneration, or other tangible rewards,” Acker said. “I have found working with such a highly motivated group to be extremely rewarding — in my view, this is what graduate education should be about.”
Currently, with the assistance of a faculty research grant provided by the University, the group has been preparing a “Death-Qualification/Life-Qualification” survey which they intend to administer to a sample of New York residents are eligible for jury service. The survey is designed to identify persons whose death-penalty views (either pro or con) are so strong that they could not be impartial jurors if asked to sentence an offender convicted of capital murder, or if asked to determine guilt or innocence in a capital trial.
The group will also compare the demographic characteristics of persons who would and would not be excluded from capital juries because of their death-penalty attitudes, and they will examine whether individuals excluded from capital-jury service harbor significantly different attitudes about the criminal justice process than those who survive the death- and life-qualification process. Related research has suggested that juries may reach significantly different judgments about guilt or innocence depending on whether individuals who share strong attitudes about capital punishment are excluded from the deliberation process.
“Just last week (Nov. 20-24), several members of the DPIG attended the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, which was held in Chicago, and presented papers describing research initiatives,” said Acker.
Other research planned or underway by members of the Group will examine New York governors’ clemency decisions in capital cases; patterns of charging and sentences decisions in potentially capital cases; jury decision-making; the cost of implementing New York’s death penalty; and erroneous convictions in death penalty cases.
“There are few legal and social policy issues of greater importance than organized government’s decision to take human life as punishment for crime,” said Acker. “Hopefully, the research efforts of members of the DPIG will help lawmakers and citizens evaluate whether the death-penalty law is serving its intended objectives, and whether it is being administered fairly in actual practice.”
Those interested in joining the Death Penalty Interest Group or wanting more information about it, may contact James Acker at 442-5317.
Linda Chavis