James Sakoda
James Sakoda was a Japanese-American psychologist, computational modeler, and origami artist. He is best known for his early development of what is now called agent-based modeling in the social sciences. Sakoda was incarcerated during World War II in U.S. internment camps, an experience that informed his doctoral work. He later became a professor at several American universities and contributed extensively to both psychology and computational social science.
Career
Sakoda was born in Lancaster, California in 1916.During World War II, Sakoda spent time incarcerated at the Tule Lake and Minidoka internment camps. He documented the experiences of Japanese Americans in internment camps, using what may be the first "agent-based model." In 1949, he published a dissertation based on his research. As a result, he earned a psychology Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, that year.
After the war, Sakoda pursued a career in psychology and teaching. He taught at Brooklyn College, before joining the psychology department at the University of Connecticut in 1958.In 1962, he joined the sociology department at Brown University and became the director of the Social Science Computer Laboratory.