Biography
In 1972 Donella Meadows was on a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team that produced the global computer model "World 3" which provided the basis for the book she co-authored, "Limits to Growth".
She co-authored "Beyond the Limit: Confronting Global Collapse, Envisioning a Sustainable Future" with Dennis Meadows and Jorgen Randers a 20 year follow up study to "Limits to Growth". She was a protege of Jay Forrester, inventor of systems dynamics and the principle of magnetic data storage for computers.
Donella Meadows was a professor at Dartmouth College in environmental systems, ethics, and journalism for 29 years. She wrote a weekly newspaper column called "The Global Citizen", which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1991. In 1985, she was awarded second place in the Champion-Tuck National competition for outstanding journalism in the field of Business and Economics.
In 1981, she founded, with her former husband, Dennis Meadows, the INRIC also known as the Balaton Group. The Balaton Group created and developed avenues of exchange between scientists on both sides of the Iron Curtain at the height of the Cold War. Donella Meadows served as its coordinator for 18 Years.
She served on many national and international boards and scientific committees and was recognized for her work by being appointed as a 1991 Pew Scholar, in 1994 as a MacArthur Fellow, and in 1992 received an Honorary Doctorate from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
In 1997, she founded the Sustainability Institute and the cohousing community, Cobb Hill, located in Hartland, VT, which combines research in global systems with practical methods of sustainable living.
-Amory Lovins eulogy for Donella Meadows,in 2001, included this quote-
"When asked if we had enough time to prevent catastrophe, she always said that we have exactly enough time - starting now."Education
PhD, Harvard (1968)
Honorary PhD, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (1992)Occupation
Scientist
Environmental systems analyst
Teacher
Writer