Humberto Maturana Romesin was born in Santiago, Chile in 1928 and sadly passed away May 6, 2021.  He studied medicine at Universidad de Chile, neurophysiology and anatomy at University College of London, and Biology at Harvard where he received a PhD in 1958.  He continued at MIT where he worked with the neurophysiology of vision.  After returning to Chile, in 1965 he worked with colleagues to found the Science Faculty at the University of Chile; of which he is now Professor Emeritus.  In 2000 Maturana and Ximena Davila co-founded Matriztica - http://matriztica.cl. Their focus now is on organizational change.

Maturana is the recipient of several national and international awards including the Chilean National Science Award for his research on perception and cognition and his approach to the biology of cognition.  He has been bestowed with Honorary Doctorates by Belgium, Spain and Chile in recognition of his vast body of scientific work concerning living systems (autopoiesis), language and cognition (biology of language and cognition) and humanness (biology of love) and was nominated for a Nobel Prize.  In 2020 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Cybernetics Society.

His scope of influence in many disciplines was far reaching, one that also includes the Dalai Lama. To see these incredible contributions and influences, please go here.

Bio courtesy of American Society for Cybernetics