Para Limes

Aha… That is Interesting! John H Holland, 85 Years Young

Exploring Complexity: Volume 1

Aha… That is Interesting! John H. Holland, 85 Years Young

Edited by Jan W Vasbinder (2014)
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte Ltd

John Holland is one of the few scientists, who all by themselves and by their pursuits, helped change the course of science and the wealth of human knowledge. There is hardly a field of science or problems, that is not affected by John’s work on complexity and in particular, complex adaptive systems. On the occasion of his 85th birthday, many of his friends wrote about John, about facets of this remarkable man that only people close to him can know and tell.This book collects those stories highlighting aspects of the creation of complexity science that will most likely not be found in the books on John’s works.

The stories and anecdotes about his quests, his collaborators, and his friends, show his incredible mind, his boyish curiosity and explorative energy, his philosophy of life, his enormous hospitality and natural inclination to make friends.

He became President Director of Shell Netherlands in 2003 until September 2007. He became member of the Government Innovation platform in 2004 under leadership of PM Balkenende. He joined the Dutch Senate in June 2007 as member of the Christian Democratic Party (CDA) until mid 2011. He had various Board positions with Van Leeuwen Buizen (chairman), Essent (chairman), NLII (Netherlands Investment Institute (chairman), FOM, VU, Caldic, between 2007 and 2018.

At present he is member of the Supervisory Board of the Boerhaave Museum and member of the Stak of Fugro and member of the council of the local Protestant church.