Debora Hammond facts for kids

Debora Hammond (born 1951) is an American historian of science. This means she studies how scientific ideas and knowledge have changed over time. She used to be a professor at Sonoma State University. She is well-known for her 2003 book, The Science of Synthesis, and for being the president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences from 2005 to 2006.

About Debora Hammond

Her Education Journey

Debora Hammond was born in 1951. She earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Arts in History, from Stanford University in 1974. After college, she taught in schools in Colorado and on the Hopi Reservation.

Later, in 1989, she went back to school at the University of California, Berkeley. There, she studied the history of science. She received her Master of Arts degree in 1991. She then completed her Ph.D. in 1997. Her main professor for her Ph.D. was Carolyn Merchant.

Studying Systems Thinking

For her Ph.D. research, Debora Hammond focused on the history of something called systems thinking. This is a way of understanding how different parts of something work together as a whole. She studied the lives and work of five people who started the Society for General Systems Research. These people were Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Kenneth Boulding, Ralph Gerard, James Grier Miller, and Anatol Rapoport.

Her research aimed to find ways to think about complex systems. These are systems with many parts that interact in complicated ways. She hoped this thinking could help create more fair and open ways for society to be organized.

Teaching and Leadership

In 1996, while finishing her Ph.D., Debora Hammond started teaching at the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies at Sonoma State University. She became a full-time professor there in 1997. She taught many different courses. These included topics like how our global food system works, the connection between ecology and economics, and issues about water. She also taught about health, technology, and how different parts of the world connect.

Her teaching focused on two main ideas:

• Ecological sustainability: How we can live on Earth without harming it for future generations.
• Social justice: Making sure everyone in society is treated fairly.

She wanted to explore how to build a healthy society that works well for everyone. She became a full professor in 2008 and retired in May 2017.

In 2005, Debora Hammond attended a special summer school at the Santa Fe Institute, which studies complex systems. From 2005 to 2006, she was the president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS). She helped organize their yearly meeting at Sonoma State University. Her goal was to improve the conference by including new ideas about complex systems. Starting in 2010, she also led a program at Sonoma State that focused on how organizations develop.

Inspiration from Nature

Debora Hammond finds a lot of her ideas and inspiration from being in nature. This is clear in her work on environmental philosophy and ethics. She believes that for society to be fair to everyone, we need to find better ways to live in harmony with the natural world.

From 2005 to 2007, she helped lead the Northern California Earth Institute. This group encouraged discussions in the community about the environment and how to live in a way that supports the Earth.