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PHYSICIST

Heinz von Foerster

1911 - 2002

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Heinz von Foerster (née von Förster; November 13, 1911 – October 2, 2002) was an Austrian-American scientist combining physics and philosophy, and widely attributed as the originator of second-order cybernetics. He was twice a Guggenheim fellow (1956–57 and 1963–64) and also was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1980. He is well known for his 1960 Doomsday equation formula published in Science predicting future population growth.As a polymath, he wrote nearly two hundred professional papers, gaining renown in fields ranging from computer science and artificial intelligence to epistemology, and researched high-speed electronics and electro-optics switching devices as a physicist, and in biophysics, the study of memory and knowledge. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Heinz von Foerster has received more than 276,303 page views. His biography is available in 15 different languages on Wikipedia. Heinz von Foerster is the 492nd most popular physicist, the 620th most popular biography from Austria and the 14th most popular Austrian Physicist.

Memorability Metrics

  • 280k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 50.99

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 15

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.29

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 1.85

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Heinz von Foersters by language


Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Heinz von Foerster ranks 492 out of 717. Before him are Boris Podolsky, Richard C. Tolman, Dennis W. Sciama, Pierre Weiss, Arthur Jeffrey Dempster, and Jakob II Bernoulli. After him are Gunnar Nordström, Vikram Sarabhai, Michael Green, George Zweig, Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau, and Michael Berry.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1911, Heinz von Foerster ranks 152. Before him are Juan Carlos Zabala, René Barjavel, Mirzo Tursunzoda, Otakar Vávra, Kaj Franck, and Leopold Kielholz. After him are Jiří Sobotka, Hume Cronyn, Aliya bint Ali, Ronald Neame, Paul Augustin Mayer, and Tarō Okamoto. Among people deceased in 2002, Heinz von Foerster ranks 141. Before him are Nikolay Rukavishnikov, Vlastimil Brodský, Héctor Trujillo, Eddie Bracken, André Delvaux, and Norihito, Prince Takamado. After him are Yves Robert, Gustaaf Deloor, Vlado Perlemuter, John Cocke, Julio Pérez, and Xavier Montsalvatge.

Others Born in 1911

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Others Deceased in 2002

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In Austria

Among people born in Austria, Heinz von Foerster ranks 620 out of 1,237. Before him are Franz Schalk (1863), Egon Friedell (1878), Anton von Schmerling (1805), Otto Muehl (1925), Princess Dorothea of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1881), and Archduchess Rosa of Austria (1906). After him are Christopher Alexander (1936), Edwin Ernest Salpeter (1924), Otto Ender (1875), Viktor Klima (1947), Karl Koller (1929), and Hans Hermann Groër (1919).

Others born in Austria

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Among PHYSICISTS In Austria

Among physicists born in Austria, Heinz von Foerster ranks 14. Before him are Fritjof Capra (1939), Walter Kohn (1923), Victor Weisskopf (1908), Marietta Blau (1894), Anton Zeilinger (1945), and Marian Smoluchowski (1872). After him are Berta Karlik (1904), Julius Wess (1934), Sulamith Goldhaber (1923), Peter Zoller (1952), and Walter Munk (1917).

Austrian born Physicists

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