Some Responses by Attendees of the Ackoff 100 Centennial at Thomas Jefferson University

The Ackoff 100 event was a wonderful example of how a conference can be so much more than a vehicle for academics to grandstand, if only it is approached systemically. The main focus of this conference was not individual contributions, but the collective idealized design of a new research institute for Jefferson University. The plan is to name it after Russ Ackoff, and this will be a lasting legacy of his contribution to Management and Systems Thinking.

----- Gerald Midgley, PhD, Professor of Systems Thinking, Centre for Systems Studies, University of Hull, Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, UK, 2013/14 President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences

++++++++++++++

Thank you so much for the Russell L. Ackoff Centennial Conference. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn more about what R. Ackoff was doing many years ago at the Busch Center, Wharton School, and to have fruitful and stimulating discussions with so many interesting people during the weekend meetings at Thomas Jefferson University. It was also a great honor for me to participate in the Idealized Design for the Ackoff Institute conducted by faculty and doctoral students from Jefferson.

------ Tatiana A. Medvedeva, Dr. Sc., Professor, Siberian State University of Transport, Novosibirsk, Russia