Editorial preface – II

Citation

Rudall, B.H. (2000), "Editorial preface – II", Kybernetes, Vol. 29 No. 7/8. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2000.06729gaa.001

Editorial preface – II

Editorial preface – II

Keywords: Cybernetics, Systems

This is the second part of the series of special double issues to mark the new millennium. It features awards and presentations to members of the international cybernetics and systems communities and also their invited addresses and research papers. In addition a carefully chosen selection of the most outstanding papers contributed to the 11th International Congress of Cybernetics and Systems (Brunel University, London, UK, 1999) are included. These contributions were selected from over 200 papers accepted for presentation at the Congress, with the authors invited to submit full papers which would reflect their new and revised researches. The papers were re-refereed and edited by the journal's editorial team and 30 were chosen for publication.

The awards and prizes featured in this second part are to members of the cybernetics and systems research groups, who, with their colleagues, have distinguished themselves in making important and worthwhile contributions to our fields of endeavour. It is fitting that at the beginning of the new millennium those who have been recognised for their achievements range from a well-known Nobel Laureate to scientists who are on the threshold of their research careers.

We are, indeed, honoured to record in this millennium volume the presentation of the Norbert Wiener Gold Memorial Medal to Professor Ilya Prigogine, a Nobel prize-winner who has made so many distinguished contributions to science. The medal citation, read out by Professor Robert Vallée, the Director-General of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics, which we include in this issue, offers both praise for his research and ample justification for bestowing this prestigious honour. We are also fortunate to be able to record Professor Prigogine's Gold Medal Memorial Address on "Norbert Wiener and his idea of contingence". Also honoured was Dr Evelyne Andreewsky, who has been awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics. We offer her our congratulations and are pleased to be able to include in this issue an invited paper (with Danièle Bourcier) on "Abduction in language interpretation and law making".

The theme "Into the millennium" has been chosen because it reflects, quite obviously, the past, present and the future. Holding a Congress in memoriam for Professor Frank H. George provides a spur to the future of cybernetic and systemic research activity. We are therefore pleased to be able to publish the Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor T. Addis, "Stone soup: identifying intelligence through construction". Both the present and the future will benefit from the researches of the winners of the Frank H. George Research Award, sponsored by the publishers of this Journal, MCB University Press. The award was for outstanding contributions to the 11th WOSC Congress and we would like to offer our congratulations to the winner: Professor D. Majumder et al. and to the "highly commended" contributor, Dr Donato Bergandi. These important contributions are included in this issue.

The new millennium also heralded the Awards for Excellence 2000 presented for an outstanding contribution to this Journal and to the authors of the first three papers deemed to be "Highly commended" by our panel of judges. The annual award – The Norbert Wiener Kybernetes Award – was presented to Professor Yves Cherruault, and to Dr Abbaoui and Dr Badredine of MEDIMAT, Université Paris VI, for their paper which applies Adomian's method. The pioneering research of Professor Cherruault and his colleagues has been published extensively in this journal over many years.

Finally, in the presentations section of this issue we are pleased to include the "Highly commended" prize-winning essay "Cybernetic explanation and development" by Dr Bernard Scott. The essay was entered into a competition organised by the Cybernetics Society and we are indebted to the society for the opportunity of publishing this important study.

The remainder of the millennium doubles issue is devoted to the invited contributions which we believe will form the platform from which some of the most fruitful research endeavours of the new millennium will be launched. Whilst the authors are too numerous to mention individually, it has to be recalled that each one has been personally invited to contribute to this volume because of the high standard of their research and development and because of the perceived potential of its future applications.

B.H. Rudall