xvii
Authors
Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest, also known as Yi Lin, holds all his edu-
cational degrees (BS, MS, and PhD) in pure mathematics,
respectively, from Northwestern University (China) and Auburn
University (USA) and had one year postdoctoral experience in
statistics at Carnegie Mellon University (USA). Currently, he is
a guest or specially appointed professor in economics, finance,
systems science, and mathematics at several major universi-
ties in China, including Huazhong University of Science and
Technology, National University of Defense Technology,
Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a ten-
ured professor of mathematics at the Pennsylvania State System
of Higher Education (Slippery Rock campus). Since 1993, he has been serving as the president
of the International Institute for General Systems Studies, Inc. Along with various professional
endeavors he organized, Dr. Forrest has had the honor to mobilize scholars from over 80 countries
representing more than 50 different scientific disciplines.
Over the years, Professor Forrest has and had served on the editorial boards of 11 professional
journals, including Kybernetes: e International Journal of Systems, Cybernetics and Management
Science, Journal of Systems Science and Complexity, International Journal of General Systems, and
Advances in Systems Science and Applications. Also, he is the editor-in-chief of two book series, one of
which is titled Systems Evaluation, Prediction, and Decision-Making, published by CRC Press (New
York, USA), an imprint of Taylor & Francis since 2008, and the other one titled Communications in
Cybernetics, Systems Science and Engineering, published by CRC Press (Balkema, the Netherlands),
an imprint of Taylor & Francis since 2011.
Some of Dr. Forrest’s research was funded by the United Nations, the State of Pennsylvania,
the National Science Foundation of China, and the German National Research Center for
Information Architecture and Software Technology.
Professor Forrest’s professional career started in 1984 when his first paper was published. His
research interests are mainly in the area of systems research and applications in a wide-ranging
number of disciplines of the traditional science, such as mathematical modeling, foundations
of mathematics, data analysis, theory and methods of predictions of disastrous natural events,
economics and finance, management science, philosophy of science, and so on. By the end of
2012, he had published over 300 research papers and over 40 monographs and edited special topic
volumes by such prestigious publishers as Springer, Wiley, World Scientific, Kluwer Academic
(now part of Springer), Academic Press (now part of Springer), and others. roughout his career,
Dr. Jeffrey Forrest’s scientific achievements have been recognized by various professional organiza-
tions and academic publishers. In 2001, he was inducted into the honorary fellowship of the World
Organization of Systems and Cybernetics.
xviiiAuthors
Tao Lixin, a retired professor from Jiangxi University of Finance,
was born on November 10, 1944. He received his undergradu-
ate education as a mathematics major from Jiangxi University.
Currently, he is on the economics faculty in Huashang School
of Guangdong Business College. During his 37 years of univer-
sity teaching, he has taught 26 different courses in diverse areas
such as mathematics, systems science, economics, international
trade, management, business studies, and statistics. Currently,
Professor Tao has completed over 80 research projects, pub-
lished over 5,000,000 words of papers in major scholarly journals
and monographs covering many scientific disciplines, including
econometrics, economics of technology, optimized management,
statistical measurement, international trade, law, and so on.
1
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