International Federation for Systems Research

IFSR Newsletter 2012 Vol. 29 No. 1 September:
On April 7, 2010 the General Assembly of the IFSR approved the founding of the International Academy of Systems and Cybernetic Sciences (IASCYS). During the two years of its existence the IASCYS has followed its major aims to create a worldwide frame-work linking both with other systemics and cybernetics organizations and with prominent individuals.
In 2011 and 2012 several meetings (Brussels in 2011, Vienna in 2012) were with the participation of representatives of IASCYS (Matjaž Mulej, Pierre Bricage), IFSR (Gerhard Chroust, Secretary General of IFSR http://archive-ifsr.org/), UES-EUS (Andrée Piecq, Secretary General of the UES/EUS http://www.ues-eus.eu/) and WOSC (Raul Espejo, Director General of The World Organization of Systems and Cybernetics). In November 2011, in Brussels, at the International Congress of the European Union for Systemics (EUS-UES), during its International Workshop (http://aes.ues-eus.eu/index.html) the IASCYS has made a link between the systemics and cybernetics federations: the IFSR, the EUS-UES and the WOSC, http://www.wosc.co/). These meetings resulted in an agreement for a closer cooperation and an opening of the Academy to members of all associations and federations working in the field of systems and cybernetics and their applications.
The IASCYS became involved in the von Bertalanffy Award for young talented systemicians & cyberneticians, given at the PhD day of the EMCSR (http://www.emcsr.net/phd-colloquium/).
The IASCYS was a sponsor of the 2012 EMCSR http://www.emcsr.net/ and the sponsor of the next IEEE conference in Morocco (Africa) http://iccs12.org/
One of the services of the Academy was to establish links between the Academicians and other associations or renowned people by announcing and promoting the calls for papers of 38 international Meetings throughout the world.
The central research topic of IASCYS in this 2 years phase was “Social responsibility as informal systemic behaviour“. The project was not financed, but anyway, under the leadership of Matjaž MULEJ, it was done! It was linking systemic behaviour with the new definition of social responsibility provided by UNO, ISO and EU as well as by groups of enterprises. The most visible postulates are provided in ISO 26000 Standard on social responsibility that defines 7 principles, 7 main topics, and 7 steps of procedure. It links them with 2 crucial notions from systems theory: (1) interdependence, and (2) holistic approach.
On this basis, IASCSY cosponsored 2 international conferences (with no financial obligations, duties or profits), arranged by IRDO, the Institute for development of social responsibility in Maribor, Slovenia, in March 2011 and March 2012, under the honorary auspices of the President of Slovenia Prof. Dr. Danilo Türk. Matjaž Mulej and Pierre Bricage contributed papers, Matjaž Mulej was vice-chairperson in 2011 and chairperson in 2012.
On the same topics Matjaž Mulej was an active participant, (co-)author and speaker at international meetings and student conferences (in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, USA). He also worked on special editions of SPAR and JSRBS journals and is preparing a book with Betham Publishers.
During two years it became necessary to make certain amendments to the statutes of the IASCYS, as shown on IASCYS homepage. The changes related to IASCYS relation to systems societies outside of the IFSR, and improvement and clarification of the rules and procedures for appointing members. With respect to its aims the new formulation of its mission is:
The International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences (IASCYS) is supposed to be a body of activity shared by the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR) and other systems & cybernetics organisations. IASCYS aiming at honouring and activating outstanding members of IFSR member-associations and other systems & cybernetics organizations.
Financing the activities of the IASCYS activities is still an open issue.
Unfortunately, President Matjaž Mulej suddenly was forced to step down from the Presidency due to family reasons. Using an internet emergency procedure to organize a meeting of the IASCYS General Assembly, Robert Trappl, accepted to be the successor of Matjaž under the condition that Matjaž Mulej remains as a Vice-President. Robert Trappl was elected as the new President and agreed to run the IASCYS together with the Executive Committee consisting now of 4 vice presidents.

With deep regret we have to report the passing away of one of our members: Ernst von Glasersfeld, who passed away in November 2010.
The current members of the IASCYS are:

1. Mary Catherine BATESON (America) Cultural Anthropologist, Cybernetics
2. Ockert J. H. BOSCH (Australia) Quantitative Ecology & Vegetation Management
3. Pierre BRICAGE (France) Biologist, Secretary General pierre.bricage@univ-pau.fr
4. Pille BUNNELL (Canada) Systems Ecologist
5. Guangya CHEN (China) Operations Research & Systems Engineering
6. Gerhard CHROUST (Austria) Systems Engineering & Automation
7. Charles FRANÇOIS (Belgium) Cybernetics, Systems Theory & Systems Science
8. Ranulph GLANVILLE (Britain) Cybernetics & Design, Vice-President ranulph@mac.com
9. Jifa GU (China) Operations Research & Systems Engineering, Vice-President jfgu@amss.ac.cn
10. Enrique HERRSCHER (Argentina) Economist & Systems Scientist
11. Wolfgang HOFKIRCHNER (Austria) Information Science, Internet & Society
12. Michael C. JACKSON (Britain) Management System, System Scientist
13. Louis H. KAUFFMAN (America) Mathematician, Cybernetics
14. Kyoichi J. KIJIMA (Japan) Decision Theory
15. Ervin LASZLO (Italia) System’s Philosopher
16. Humberto MATURANA (Chile) Neuroscience & Second Order Cybernetics
17. Edgar MORIN (France) Philosopher & Sociologist
18. Matjaž MULEJ (Slovenia) Systems Science & Innovation Theory, Vice-President mulej@uni-mb.si
19. Yoshiteru NAKAMORI (Japan) Systems & Knowledge Science
20. Laurence D. RICHARDS (America) Operations Research & Engineering Management
21. Bernard SCOTT (Britain) Educational Psychologist & Cybernetician
22. George SOROS (Hungary) Investor & Social System Analyst
23. Robert TRAPPL (Austria) Artificial Intelligence & Medical Cybernetician, President robert.trappl@ofai.at
24. Stuart UMPLEBY (America) Systems & Cybernetics
25. Robert VALLÉE (France) Cybernetist & Mathematician
26. Ernst Von GLASERSFELD (America) Philosopher & Cybernetician
27. Shouyang WANG (China) Operations Research & Systems Engineering
28. Andrzej P. WIERZBICKI (Poland) Decision Theory & Knowledge Science
29. Jiuping XU (China) Systems Engineering, Management Science & Engineering
30. Rainer E. ZIMMERMANN (Germany) Philosopher & Designer

Pierre Bricage
Secretar General of IASCYS
bricagepierre@gmail.com
(Vienna , April 13th, 2012)