Howard H. Pattee

Timeline

1. 1926–1953

   Physics degrees at Stanford

   He is born in Pasadena, California, in October 1926. He earns a BA at Stanford University in 1948 and a physics PhD there in 1953, with a thesis on the compound reflection X-ray microscope under Paul H. Kirkpatrick.

2. 1961–1969

   Origin of life and natural automata

   He publishes "On the Origin of Macromolecular Sequences" in the Biophysical Journal in 1961 and co-edits Natural Automata and Useful Simulations in 1966. At theoretical biology symposia in the late 1960s, he uses John von Neumann's theory of self-reproducing automata to argue for the causal power of symbols over the biological world, and in 1969 he publishes "How Does a Molecule Become a Message?" His Stanford student Michael Conrad earns a biophysics PhD with him in 1969.

3. 1972–1977

   From Buffalo to Binghamton

   From 1972 to 1975, he advises Vahe Bedian's doctoral research on the origin of the genetic code at SUNY Buffalo, where Silvano Colombano also studies with him in the Biophysics department and Center for Theoretical Biology. He then transfers to SUNY Binghamton and remains Colombano's advisor until Colombano earns his PhD in 1977.

4. 1973

   Editing Hierarchy Theory

   In 1973, he edits Hierarchy Theory: The Challenge of Complex Systems for George Braziller, with essays including Herbert A. Simon's "The organization of complex systems". He contributes a chapter on the physical basis and origin of hierarchical control and a postscript on unsolved problems of hierarchy theory.

5. 1980–1999

   Doctoral students at Binghamton

   As a theoretical biologist and professor of systems science at Binghamton, he supervises Dennis Waters, who arrives in 1980 and completes a 1990 dissertation on natural symbol systems, and advises Eric Minch's 1989 thesis on hierarchical structure in evolving networks. With George Klir, he co-advises Luis M. Rocha, whose doctoral defense takes place in 1999.

6. 1984–1995

   Artificial life and an AAAS fellowship

   He becomes a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1984. In 1988, his chapter "Simulations, Realizations, and Theories of Life" appears in Artificial Life, a Santa Fe Institute volume edited by C. Langton. He publishes "Artificial life needs a real epistemology" in Advances in Artificial Life in 1995.

7. 2001–2012

   A BioSystems issue on symbols

   In 2001, BioSystems publishes a special issue on his work, The Physics and Evolution of Symbols and Codes, guest-edited by his former student Luis M. Rocha to mark his retirement; it opens with his paper "The Physics of Symbols: Bridging the Epistemic Cut". Springer publishes Laws, Language and Life in 2012, collecting his classic papers on the physics of symbols with an afterword by Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi.

8. July 2026–October 2026

   Death and a centennial workshop

   He dies in July 2026 at the age of 99. In October 2026, Binghamton University hosts a centennial workshop on the physics of symbols, epistemic cuts and new directions for life and AI research, a satellite event of the 2026 Conference on Complex Systems. Its speakers include his former student Eric Horvitz, Chief Scientific Officer at Microsoft.