Robert E. Machol

Robert Engel Machol (October 16, 1917 in New York, USA – November 12, 1998 in Maryland, USA) was an American systems engineer and professor of systems at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management of Northwestern University. Machol wrote the earliest significant books directly related to systems engineering. He was also Chief Scientist for the Federal Aviation Administration, President of the Operations Research Society of America, and an encyclopedia editor.

Machol was raised in New York City, New York. After graduation from Harvard University in 1940 he enlisted in the United States Navy with the intention to become an aviator. Although he did not earn his pilot's wings, he emerged from World War II holding the rank of lieutenant commander.

Following the war Machol worked for the Operations Evaluation Group of the U.S. Navy Center for Naval Operations and then as editor for scientific articles for the Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia. In 1951, he was hired as the Technical Editor for the University of Michigan's Willow Run Laboratories (which later became the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan after the Laboratory separated from the University of Michigan). Willow Run was a research organization that was engaged in scientific and applied research in systems engineering, operations research, computer science, and electronics under contract to the Department of Defense. Its principal work, which involved looking for improved ways of defending the United States against air attack, led to the ground-breaking book, "System Engineering," co-authored with Harry H. Goode. By 1958 Machol obtained a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Michigan and became an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering (later full Professor) at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana. In 1960 he moved back to Michigan as Vice President Systems of Conductron, a technology startup in an era when there were almost no such startups.

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