The World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC) – Organisation Mondiale pour la Systémique et la Cybernétique (OMSC), is an association of individuals and organisations devoted to systems and cybernetics.
WOSC and the journal Kybernetes were founded in 1969 by Professor Jakob Rose (van der Zouwen and Geyer, 2009), who was its President until 1987. Dr. Norbert Wiener (Rudall, 1994) is the President in Memoriam, which grants WOSC to present the golden Norbert wiener medal to distinguished Cyberneticians and Systems thinkers. In 1987, the role of the president was passed to Professor Stafford Beer (Leonard, 2015) until his death in August 2002. Professor Robert Vallée took over and was WOSC’s President until his death in 2017 (Vallée, 2012).
In the spring of 2004, WOSC was restructured, and Dr. Alex Andrew (UK) became Director-General, with Professor Robert Vallée (France) as President. At the Fifteenth Congress, in Nanjing in 2011, Alex Andrew stood down as Director-General and has been replaced in that capacity by Professor Raul Espejo
On the 1st of January 2017, Professor Robert Vallée passed away. Following the procedures agreed at WOSC 2017 in Rome, Professor Raul Espejo became the new President and Dr. Igor Perko took over the role as the Director-General. An Advisory Board to the President was formed at the same time.
References
LEONARD, A. 2015. Stafford Beer and the legacy of Cybersyn: seeing around corners. Kybernetes, 44, 926-934. https://doi.org/10.1108/k-02-2015-0045
RUDALL, B. H. 1994. A TRIBUTE TO WIENER,NORBERT. Kybernetes, 23, 5-7.
VALLÉE, R. 2012. From Professor Robert Vallee, President of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC) Dedication. Kybernetes, 41, 11-11.
VAN DER ZOUWEN, J. & GEYER, R. F. 2009. John Rose and the early years of sociocybernetics. Kybernetes, 38, 61-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920910930268