In hmolscience, Matthew F. Melko (1930-2010) was an American political scientist noted for his 1969 book The Nature of Civilizations, in which he describes the rise of civilization using mechanism diagrams, similar to physical chemistry reaction mechanism diagrams. [1] American physical chemist Thomas Wallace devotes an entire chapter expanding on what he calls “Melko’s transitional mechanistic model” in terms of more detailed transition state theory. [2]
Melko was a joint editor of the 1987 book The Boundaries of Civilization in Space and Time, which discusses homeokinetics work of American physicist Arthur Iberall, supposedly in application to the physics of the disintegrate of cultures. [4]
Education
In 1975, Melko, self-defined as a political scientist, was associate dean of Bradford College, Haverhill, Mass., and was editor of Comparative Civilizations. In 2010, at the time of his passage, Melko was a peer-review editor for the Comparative Civilizations Review. [3]
References
1. Melko, Matthew. (1969). The Nature of Civilizations (mechanisms, pgs. 47-57). Porter Sargent Publishers.
2. Wallace, Thomas P. (2009). Wealth, Energy, and Human Values: the Dynamics of Decaying Civilizations from Ancient Greece to America (Melko and Le Chatelier's principle, pgs. 142-43; ch. 14: The Mechanistic-thermodynamic Paradigm: a Unifying Perspective of Civilization, pgs. 440-68). AuthorHouse.
3. Editorial Board – ISCSC, Journal – UMich.edu.
4. Melko, Matthew and Scott, Leighton R. (1987). Boundaries of Civilization in Space and Time (Iberall, pgs. 222, 300). University Press of America.
External links
● Matthew F. Melko (1930-2010) – Tributes.com.
