Officers

These are the temporary officers serving from 2017 until 2020 as we test the viability of this new professional society.  In 2020, given enough members, elections of officers will be held for the first time. These officers are all volunteers. There is, at present, no President-Elect, President, or Past President until the 2020 elections.

  • Managing Director, Dr. Len Troncale     

  • Dr. Len Troncale is Professor Emeritus of Cell and Molecular Biology, and past Chairman of the Biology Department at California State Polytechnic University. He is also Founder/Director Emeritus of the Institute for Advanced Systems Studies, and Coordinator of its NSF-supported Systems Integrated Science General Education (ISGE) Program. He has served as VP and Managing Director of the International Society for General Systems Research (ISGSR), and President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS, 1990). He still serves on the Board of Trustee’s for ISSS. He was a member of the Board of Directors for the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR) from 1982-85 and a Research Associate at the Int’l Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria. He is Project Lead on two projects of the Systems Science Working Group (SSWG) of INCOSE (International Council on Systems Engineering). Dr. Troncale has published 150 articles, abstracts, editorials and reports, served as Editor on a dozen projects, delivered 115 invited and computerized presentations and demonstrations in 23 countries and served as P.I. on 52 grants and contracts for $5.5M from a variety of federal, state, and private organizations such as the NSF, DOE, ONR, HUD, HHMI and Keck Foundations, and the CSU System. He is the Founder of the Systems Processes Theory, and Systems Pathology Theory (as well as new specialties such as Systems Allometry, Systems Mimicry, and SysInformatics).

  • Secretary: Richard Emerson   

  • Mr. Richard Emerson graduated in 1961 from CalPoly Pomona with Bachelor’s degrees in Electronic Engineering and Math. Upon graduation, he joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the Communications Research Section where he worked on such diverse projects as a ranging system based in pseudo random codes and a System to achieve clock synchronization world around. He completed a Master in System Engineering from West Coast University in 1967. Still at JPL, he continued to work on project involving computer control, correlation, and precision phase controlled oscillators applying these technologies to Deep Space Communication and Navigation and to signal detection and classification. He switched to Energy and Technology Application where his experience in radio communication was applied to the design and testing of emergency communication systems, including dispatch and control design. After his return to the Communication Research Section, his projects included the development of a proof of concept system for communication between mobile ground stations (cars) and a satellite and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SITI). During that project he was leader of a team working with Jodrell Bank, England using a special mobile Radio Frequency Interference Measurement Facility to identify and characterize extraterrestrial radio sources. He finished his 46-year career at the JPL as the system engineer for the downlink portion of the Deep Space Network. In that position he worked with NASA Head Quarters on a unified Space Communication and Navigation system encompassing both near earth and deep space systems.Since retiring in 2008 he has been active in the LA chapter of INCOSE notably in the development and implementation of several one-day conferences and as the co-leader of the first West Coast Regional Conference in 2015. He is a member of the INCOSE System Science Working Group and is a member of IEEE and ACM. He is a founding member of the ISSP and is currently serving in the Office of Secretary of the Board of Directors.He lives in La Canada with his wife Sally, where they are active in the community.

  • Treasurer: Luke Friendshuh 

  • Founder of System Modeling Institute – SystemModeling.org
  • 25 years in computer industry – mostly software/firmware development and performance modeling (15 years with Seagate Technology)
  • 8 years of modeling storage systems
  • 2 years on CRISIS economic modeling project at Oxford
  • System and Complexity Courses:
    • University of Anchorage Alaska Complexity Science
    • Capturing Business complexity with Agent-based modeling at Argonne National Laboratory
    • General Systems Theory – System of Systems processes at Cal Poly
    • EEE System Science study group
    • Network Systems modeling
  • BS degree in Electrical Engineering
  • Interests
    • System Modeling
      • In particular Economic Modeling
    • AI
    • Virtual Worlds
    • Information Theory and Entropy
    • Complex Adaptive Systems

  • VP for Publications: Dr. Polinho Katina

  • Dr. Polinho Katina was recently hired as Assistant Professor, Advanced Manufacturing Management, Dept. of Informatics and Engineering Systems, University of South Carolina Upstate, 800 University Way, Spartansburg, SC, 29303
  • Polinpapilinho F. Katina currently serves as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the National Centers for System of Systems Engineering and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Virginia, USA). Dr. Katina holds a B.Sc. in Engineering Technology, a M.Eng. in Systems Engineering and a Ph.D. in Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, all from Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Virginia, USA). He received additional training from, among others, Environmental Systems Research Institute (Redlands, California) and Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy). His areas of research include critical infrastructure protection, energy systems (Smart Grids), engineering management, decision-making under uncertainty, complex system governance, infranomics, systems engineering, systems of systems engineering, system pathology, and systems theory. Dr. Katina has co-authored more than 60 peer-reviewed papers to international journals (e.g., International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, Requirements Engineering, and INCOSE’s Insight) and conferences (e.g., ASEM, IEEE, IISE, and WEFTEC). He served as a Guest Editor for the International Journal of Critical Infrastructures (2014) and International Journal of System of Systems Engineering (2015).
  • Vice-President for ISSP Websites : Dr. Peter Tuddenham
  • Open: Vice-President for Membership
  • Open: Vice-President for Conferences

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