LEO Award Winner - C. West Churchman
			C. West Churchman C. West Churchman, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, has made major contributions to two areas that are foundational to Information Systems: management science and system concepts. He was one of the founders of the field of management science and operations research. He served as Editor in Chief of management Science from 1954 to 1960, and was president of the Institute of Management Science (now INFORMS). He organized the first operations research academic group and founded the first graduate master's and Ph.D. programs in Operations Research. He co-authored the first textbook, Introduction to Operations Research (with R.L. Ackoff and E. L. Arnoff). The framework of this book had a major impact on information systems analysis and design. System concepts have direct relevance to the field of Information Systems. West's approach to systems can be characterized as a soft systems approach. An analyst must accept the fact that stakeholders can have completely different evaluations of social reality. There is a need for argument and debate in order to secure change in a social world. An analyst should identify the interests of the stakeholders and influence decision makers to recognize the changes that will benefit the clients of the system. Several of his major publications related to systems are The Systems Approach (Delacorte Press, New York 1968; revised edition, Dell Publishing Company, Inc., New York, 1979), The Design of Inquiring Systems: Basic Concepts of Systems and Organizations (Basic Books, New York, 1971), and The Systems Approach and Its Enemies (Basic Books, New York, 1979). Although his contributions to the field of Information Systems have centered on management science and system concepts, his career began in hilosophy. West received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1938. He held positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Wayne State University, Case Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Berkeley. He founded the Institute of Experimental Method, dedicated to applying Singer's concept of experiment to real social problems. His teaching at the School of Business Administration, University of California, Berkeley, included philosophy of system science, introduction to ethics and value assumptions of planning and system design, and modeling and problem solving in management science. He has written extensively on the subject of peace and ethics and held a professorship in Peace and Conflict Studies at Berkeley. West has honorary doctorates from Washington University of St. Louis, University of Lund (Sweden) and Umeå University (Sweden). He received The Berkeley Citation in 1983.