Julian Bigelow, 89; Work Helped Pioneer Cybernetics, Computing
Julian Bigelow, 89, an electrical engineer and mathematician who helped pioneer both cybernetics and computing, died Monday in Princeton, N.J., of unspecified causes.
Educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received degrees in electrical engineering and math, Bigelow found joy in figuring out how to make things work. He proved to be a pragmatic link between theoreticians and the real world.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Feb. 26, 2003 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday February 26, 2003 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 ..CF: Y 0 inches; 35 words Type of Material: Correction
Mathematician -- The obituary of computer pioneer Julian Bigelow in Sunday’s California section incorrectly spelled the last name of a colleague, mathematician Norbert Wiener, as Weiner.
During World War II, he worked with mathematician Norbert Weiner to create fire-control systems for weapons. Subsequently, with Weiner and Arturo Rosenblueth, Bigelow co-wrote the paper “Behavior, Purpose and Teleology,” which became the foundation for the field of cybernetics. It detailed unifying principles about behavior -- a key for the field of cybernetics, which examines how mechanical, biological and electronic systems interact and communicate.
Bigelow was named chief engineer for the postwar Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where John von Neumann was designing a stored-program computer. Beginning work in the summer of 1946, they created a computer known as the IAS, which provided the basic design for modern computers.
Bigelow helped gain acceptance for working computer engineers among the resistant intellectual theoreticians by assisting them with their hi-fi equipment.
