STOCKHOLM RESILIENCE CENTRE
Pioneering the science of surprise Crawford Stanley “Buzz” Holling, the father of resilience research, passed away on 16 August 2019, aged 88
PIONEERS BREAK NEW GROUND and leave an empty space when they move on. Crawford Stanley Holling is considered the father of resilience research and a pivotal figure in the development of the Beijer Institute, the Resilience Alliance and the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Crawford, or “Buzz” – a nickname given to him by his sister because she believed it suited his character better (he agreed) – called his resilience work the “science of surprise”. He highlighted the importance of considering surprise, system reorganisation and learning when trying to understand social-ecological dynamics. He also emphasised that understanding – not knowledge in a narrow sense – is navigating the dynamic, connected and evolving challenges of our rich and beautiful but unequal world. Buzz Holling was born in 1930 and grew up in the forests of Northern Ontario where he developed a deep interest in the living world. An early interest in forest insects led him 16
to study them, first at the University of Toronto and then the University of British Colombia. During his PhD (1957) he developed the first mathematical theory of predation. These concepts are now widely used to analyse predator-prey interactions. In the 1960s and 1970s, Holling extended his work using systems to understand diverse types of interactions among people and nature. He began to collaborate with experts outside of universities and research labs to understand land development, forest management and pest management. It was from these experiences that Holling first began to formulate his ideas about resilience. This work continued in Vienna where Holling first visited and later became director of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). In the 1990s, Holling moved from the University of British Colombia to the University of Florida in the United States. This marked the beginning of a long-term
