University of Melbourne

Department Member, Engineering Learning Unit, Melbourne School of Engineering

Other Affiliations: EA Principals, Inc, ESAII
Koroit Institute Proponents and Supporters Association, Inc, Administration

Senior Fellow

About

I am an evolutionary biologist by training (PhD Harvard, 1973) with completed research in comparative cytogenetics, systematics, speciation, and biogeography of North American lizards. I have significant teaching experience in many areas of biology including vertebrate and invertebrate biology, marine biology, genetics (molecular and classical), evolutionary biology, biogeography.

From ~1981 through 2007, in Australia, I worked in industry as a technical communicator, documentation manager, and content and knowledge management (KM) systems analyst and designer. From 1990 through my retirement in 2007 I worked for Tenix Defence solving a wide gamut of content and knowledge management issue relating to the design, engineering and support of the ANZAC ships. At the time this $7 BN fixed price defense project was the largest in Australian history, and in part due to solutions I designed, the 17 year long project to design, build, deliver and provide initial support for 10 high tech frigates finished on-time, on-budget, with a significant profit for the company.

From 2001 I returned to academia part time, where I have applied biological principles to understanding organizational knowledge, and the development of the theory of knowledge-based organization combining Maturana and Varelas' concept of autopoiesis and Popperian evolutionary epistemology as extended with Simon's theory of complexity and Salthe's ideas regarding hierarchically complex systems.

Currently, in addition to my research writing, I am

(1) Senior Fellow in Melbourne University's Engineering Learning Unit, where I try to convince the school they should offer a subject in engineering knowledge management;

(2) a co-convener of the open Melbourne Emergence Meetup group that meets monthly to discuss topics relating to emergence, complexity and related issues before retiring to the pub for even more informal discussion;

(3) Founding President of Kororoit Institute Supporters and Proponents Association, Inc. (http://kororoit.org) that is working to found an organization interested in fundamental research on complex self-organizing systems as extended and applied to industrial and community organizational systems; and

(4) a Principal in EA Principals, Inc. (http://eaprincipals.com) where I am working with other Principals teaching enterprise architecture certification courses to develop a new series of courses and certifications based in part on organic principles of organization as developed in my research.

Contact Information