John Mingers is Professor of OR and Information Systems and Director of Research at Kent Business School, University of Kent, UK. His research interests include the use of systems methodologies in problem situations, particularly the mixing of different methodologies within an intervention; the development of critical realism as a philosophy for information systems; the development of theory concerning the nature of information and meaning; and autopoiesis and its applications. He has published several books, including Self-Producing Systems: Implications and Applications of Autopoiesis and Information Systems: An Emerging Discipline?.