James Grier Miller (1916 - 7 Nov 2002) was an American
biologistA biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life.Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
, a pioneer of
systems scienceSystems 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...
, who originated the modern use of the term "behavioral science", and founded and directed the multi-disciplinary
Mental Health Research InstituteThe Mental Health Research Institute of the University of Michigan has been an interdisciplinary research institute, which played a key role in the development of general systems theory....
at the
University of MichiganThe University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public research university located in the state of Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university, the flagship campus of the University of Michigan, and one of the top public universities in the world...
.
Miller received his A.B. summa cum laude in 1937, an A.M. in
psychologyPsychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...
in 1938, an M.D. cum laude in 1942, and Ph.D. in psychology in 1943 all from
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
, where he was also a junior fellow of the Society of Fellows.
James Grier Miller (1916 - 7 Nov 2002) was an American
biologistA biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life.Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
, a pioneer of
systems scienceSystems 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...
, who originated the modern use of the term "behavioral science", and founded and directed the multi-disciplinary
Mental Health Research InstituteThe Mental Health Research Institute of the University of Michigan has been an interdisciplinary research institute, which played a key role in the development of general systems theory....
at the
University of MichiganThe University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public research university located in the state of Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university, the flagship campus of the University of Michigan, and one of the top public universities in the world...
.
Biography
Miller received his A.B. summa cum laude in 1937, an A.M. in
psychologyPsychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...
in 1938, an M.D. cum laude in 1942, and Ph.D. in psychology in 1943 all from
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
, where he was also a junior fellow of the Society of Fellows. Following military service in World War II, he served as Chief of the newly formed Clinical Psychology section of the Veteran's Administration central office in Washington.
He has served on the faculty at Harvard. In 1948, he accepted the position of Chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago, which he held until 1955. From 1955 to 1967 he directed the multi-disciplinary Mental Health Research Institute At Michigan. In 1967 to pursue an administrative career, first as provost of the newly founded
Cleveland State UniversityCleveland State University is a public university in Cleveland, Ohio. It is part of University System of Ohio which was formed in 2007...
, and then in 1973 as president of the
University of LouisvilleThe University of Louisville is a public university in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains...
, from which position he retired in 1980.
He is a fellow or member of numerous scientific and professional societies. He served as president of the
Society for General Systems ResearchThe Society for General Systems Research is predecessor of the current International Society for the Systems Sciences , known to be one the first interdisciplinary and international co-operations in the field of systems theory and systems science...
(SGSR) succeeding
Margaret MeadMargaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
in 1973. He was a founder and the first head of EDUCOM (the Interuniversity Communications Council). He also has been a fellow of the "International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis" (
IIASAThe International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis is an international non-governmental research organization located in Laxenburg, near Vienna, in Austria. IIASA conducts interdisciplinary scientific studies on environmental, economic, technological and social issues in the context of human...
) in Vienna. For more than 30 years Miller was editor of the Journal "Behavioral Science".
Publications
Miller has written or co-authored nine books and published more than 100 scientific and scholarly articles.
- 1942. Unconsciousness. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
- 1948. OSS Assessment Staff. Assessment of men. New York: Rinehart & Company.
- 1950. Experiments in social process. (Ed.) New York: Mc Graw-Hill.
- 1959. The pharmacology and clinical usefulness of carisoprodol. (Ed.) Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
- 1960. Drugs and behavior. (Ed.) with L. Uhr. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
- 1978. Living systems. New York: Mc Graw-Hill.
- 1989. Measurement and interpretations in accounting: a living systems theory approach. With G.A. Swanson, New York: Quorum Books.
Further reading
- Bernard W. Agranoff (2003). Grier Miller, 1916–2002 : Obituary". In: Neuropsychopharmacology (2003) 28, 2221–2222.
- Debora Hammond
Debora Hammond is an American historian of science, Provost and Professor Interdisciplinary Studies of the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies at the Sonoma State University...
and Jennifer WilbyJennifer M. Wilby is an American management scientist, and Director of the Centre for Systems Studies and a lecturer and researcher in management systems and sciences in The Business School, University of Hull.- Biography :...
(2006). "The life and work of James Grier Miller". In: Systems Research and Behavioral Science. Volume 23, Issue 3, Pages 429 - 435.
- G.A. Swanson. "James Grier Miller (1916-)" on ISSS.org.