Brian Mar, founding member and second president of INCOSE, died Saturday March 12 of a heart attack. Brian played a key role in influencing the development of systems engineering as a discipline and a profession and for educating engineers about systems. His loss will be felt deeply across INCOSE.
Upon hearing the news, INCOSE President Heinz Stoewer noted "Brian Mar was one of the founders of INCOSE and our second President in 1993. He was instrumental in launching INCOSE on a path to become a respected worldwide organization. As a teacher of systems engineering he has inspired an entire generation of systems engineers at the University of Washington. We will miss him greatly; this is very sad news indeed."
After 30 years of service, Brian retired from active research and teaching in 1997 and became a professor emeritus of Civil and Systems Engineering at the University of Washington. Prior to joining the university, he worked at Boeing as a research physicist in weapons effects, nuclear power systems, and new business development. He received his Ph.D. in chemical and nuclear engineering from the University of Washington in 1958. His research areas included environmental systems management specialized in water resources, engineering of complex systems, and interdisciplinary research management. He was the Boeing Sutter Professor of the engineering of complex systems and served in several administrative positions including associate dean of the College of Engineering, program chair of the Water and Air resources program, director of the Urban Water Research Center, and graduate program advisor.
Brian published over 200 papers in scholarly journals and helped create INCOSE and INTERSTUDY. He was a distinguished professor at Portland State University where he mentored the development of their web based graduate systems engineering masters degree program. His systems engineering text, The Engineering of Complex Systems is available on CD or at the PSU web site. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa honorary.
Brian received the INCOSE Founders Award in 1997 in recognition of his dedicated leadership and seminal contributions to our organization. With his numerous contributions to our profession and the education of systems engineers, Brian was named an INCOSE Fellow in 2000.