Crawford Stanley Holling

Early Life and Career

Crawford Stanley Holling was born to Canadian parents Claudia Ann and Stanely Arnold Holling in Theresa, New York. He was raised in New Liskard, Ontario, and Toronto.

Holling was educated at the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia. He was known to his scientific colleagues for his research in forest entomology with the Canada Department of Forestry from 1952 to 1964 in Sault Ste Marie, and from 1965 to 1967 in Victoria. However, Holling’s public prominence dates from his subsequent work at UBC, where he became professor of zoology in 1967, and was director of the Institute of Animal Resource Ecology from 1969 to 1973. Holling and his colleagues addressed a variety of resource management problems using a workshop technique. They developed a worldwide reputation for incisive and perceptive analysis and for their advocacy of adaptive management policies. Holling was director of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna from 1981 to 1984. Holling ended his career at the University of Florida, where he retired in 1999.