{"id":863,"date":"2019-09-18T15:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T15:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alife.org\/?p=863"},"modified":"2021-06-06T05:27:43","modified_gmt":"2021-06-06T05:27:43","slug":"isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alife.org\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements\/","title":{"rendered":"ISAL Board Elections 2019: Candidate Statements"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Candidates for Election to the ISAL Board of Directors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>September 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ISAL is <strong>electing five new members<\/strong> to its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alife.org\/board-members\" class=\"broken_link\">board of directors<\/a>,\n to replace the current directors whose terms are expiring. 18 society \nmembers are standing for election, as listed below. Follow the links for\n each candidate&#8217;s election statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All society members will shortly be contacted with further information regarding the election date and voting procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Wilson\">Dennis Wilson<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Vostinar\">Anya Vostinar<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Hintze\">Arend Hintze<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Nichele\">Stefano Nichele<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Sinapayen\">Lana Sinapayen<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Walker\">Sara Imari Walker<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Cejkova\">Jitka Cejkova<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Dolson\">Emily Dolson<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Andras\">Peter Andras<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Witkowski\">Olaf Witkowski<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Zaman\">Luis Zaman<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Ofria\">Charles Ofria<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Risi\">Sebastian Risi<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Wiser\">Michael Wiser<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Banzhaf\">Wolfgang Banzhaf<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Yue\">Shigang Yue<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Fellermann\">Harold Fellermann<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#Penn\">Alexandra Penn<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Click on a candidate to read their election statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Wilson\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Dennis_Wilson\"><\/span><strong>Dennis Wilson<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I came into the ALife community four years ago from the Evolutionary \nComputation and Genetic Programming communities, in which I am still \ninvolved. During my thesis, I helped found the ISAL Student group, now \nthe ERA, and acted as Communications Chair from 2017-2018. My research \nconsiders AI from an ALife perspective, and I am an organizer of the \nDevelopmental Neural Networks workshop, which is taking place at ALIFE \n2019. I will soon be an Associate Professor at ISAE-SUPAERO, focusing on\n lifelong learning in RL domains. At the same time, I have launched a \ncompany, Nautilia, which aims to simulate, monitor, and protect the \noceans. In both of these capacities, I hope to apply and expand ALife \nmethods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If elected, I would have the following priorities:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Environmental impact: in addition to reducing our individual\n carbon contributions, how can ISAL promote research with positive \nenvironmental impact? My response to this has been Nautilia, which aims \nto use biologging and satellite data to simulate ocean ecosystems, and \nthere are many others in the community working on ecosystem management, \npolicy creation, smart city planning, and other topics that should be \nhighlighted and encouraged from an ecological perspective.<\/li><li>Diversity: As ISAL and ALife change, potentially through more \nvirtual meetings, we should be very conscious to involve the entire \ncommunity, international and minorities especially. I will work to \ninvolve non-native English speakers, racial minorities, women, and other\n underrepresented communities.<\/li><li>ALife and AI: As AI receives massive attention, positive and \ncritical, it is worth evaluating the relationship between the two fields\n &#8211; noting their differences but also demonstrating how these two fields \ncan benefit each other.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d9w.xyz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Vostinar\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Anya_Vostinar\"><\/span><strong>Anya Vostinar<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-2\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I am an assistant professor of Computer Science at Grinnell College, \nwhere I lead the SymbuLab, which uses Artificial Life to investigate the\n evolution of symbiosis and cooperation. I developed and maintain the \nartificial life platform Symbulation. I publish in venues ranging from \nGECCO and ALIFE conferences to the Artificial Life journal and ecology \nand evolution journals.   I believe deeply that artificial life is an \ninvaluable field for 1) undergraduate education and 2) public \nunderstanding and acceptance of biological dynamics. I have integrated \nartificial life into several classes and worked with colleagues in \nbiology to enable their students to perform artificial life experiments.\n I have also written a Medium article on my work to introduce \napplications of artificial life to the general public. I would use my \nposition on the board to expand this work more broadly<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-2\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If elected, my priorities will be:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Developing a system within ISAL to connect undergraduates \ninterested in artificial life research with summer research and graduate\n school opportunities.<\/li><li>Creating an Outreach track that emphasizes ways in which artificial \nlife projects and research can be used in the classroom and to increase \npublic understanding. This track would accept \u2018experience report\u2019 \npapers, modeled after SIGCSE, that focus on what the authors did and do \nnot require assessment.<\/li><li>Creating a media recommendations column on the ISAL blog to increase\n community content on the blog and highlight how recently published \nbooks and other media discuss or otherwise relate to artificial life.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vostinar.sites.grinnell.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Hintze\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Arend_Hintze\"><\/span><strong>Arend Hintze<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-3\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I perform research on evolutionary game theory and neuro-evolution \nusing computational models. I think the only viable path to general \npurpose intelligence is to evolve it in a complex computer model, and I \nwork towards that goal. I have a background in genetics and \ndevelopmental biology, but now I work exclusively computationally. I am \nmostly known for my contribution on EGT and Markov Brain development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-3\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I think that computational modeling is instrumental to understand \ncomplex biological and cognitive processes and I would like to promote \nthis idea not only within the ALIFE community but also use it as a \nvehicle to expand ALIFE ideas into other disciplines. Similarly, I think\n that the field of Machine Learning will soon loose its momentum and \nthat genetic algorithms and machines with emergent properties will \nbecome the main focus on the path to general purpose intelligence. I \nwould like to help shape and foster this transition of focus towards \nALIFE as a key scientific field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20191218214043\/http:\/\/hintzelab.msu.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Nichele\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Stefano_Nichele\"><\/span><strong>Stefano Nichele<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-4\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I am an Associate Professor at the Oslo Metropolitan University \n(Norway), where I direct the Living Technology Lab. I am the founder and\n deputy head of the Applied Artificial Intelligence research group and \nthe OsloMet AI Lab. I am also a member of the IEEE CIS Task Force on \nArtificial Life and Complex Adaptive Systems and the IEEE CIS Task Force\n on Evolutionary Developmental Systems and Robotics. Recently, I have \nbeen working in Alife projects that use self-organizing substrates for \ncomputation. Examples include the NTNU Cyborg project (robot controlled \nby in-vitro neurons), the NASCENCE project (evolution in physical \nmaterials, e.g., carbon-nanotubes), the SOCRATES project (computation in\n substrates made of biological neurons and nanomagnets) and the DeepCA \nproject (hybrid systems made of cellular automata and biological \nneurons).  I am co-chairing of the IEEE ALIFE 2019 conference and I am a\n member of the ISAL award committee 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-4\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If elected, my priorities will be:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Restart the annual ISAL summer school<\/li><li>Organize Alife workshops in major AI conferences (e.g., NeurIPS; ICLR, ICML) to facilitate cross-fertilization<\/li><li>Serve as an ISAL liaison with the IEEE Task Force on Artificial Life\n and Complex Adaptive Systems for better coordination and joint \ninitiatives<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nichele.eu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Sinapayen\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Lana_Sinapayen\"><\/span><strong>Lana Sinapayen<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-5\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I am a research scientist at the Earth-Life Science Institute and at \nSony Computer Science Laboratories in Tokyo, where I lead a team working\n on the topic of &#8220;prediction&#8221; in areas as diverse as human perception, \nthe evolution of cognitive abilities, and Astrobiology.  Since joining \nthe ALife community in 2015, my contributions have been of 3 kinds: I \nhave been working at the frontier of AI and ALife, and my co-authored \npaper on self-organizing spiking networks received an award at the ALife\n 2018 conference. I have helped chairing, organizing, and reviewing for \nsessions at the ALife conference. Finally, I have been active in making \nALife known to other fields and to the general public through numerous \npublic talks or events, and my science communication project <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlifePapers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">@ALifePapers<\/a>\n was awarded the 2019 ISAL Education and Outreach Award. I am also a \nco-organizer of the Fake Life Recognition Contest launching this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-5\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>My commitment is to increase the visibility and accessibility of ALife research both inside and outside of the community.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Through open science standards: encouraging the publication \nof open access preprints, shared code, and shared data, possibly \nfollowing the Open Science Badges standard<\/li><li>By organizing and helping to organize ALife competitions to increase\n exchanges with other communities, such as the vibrant data science and \ndeep learning communities<\/li><li>By discussing with the ISAL board the adoption of new science \npractices, an area in which I have been very involved in recent years: \nuse of the &#8220;BetterPoster&#8221; layout (for which I developed the latex \nversion) and other alternatives; creation of an Overlay Journal; \ncrowdsourced hypothesis generation.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonycsl.co.jp\/member\/tokyo\/6576\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Walker\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Sara_Imari_Walker\"><\/span><strong>Sara Imari Walker<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-6\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I am an Associate Professor, Deputy Director of the Beyond Center and\n Associate Director of the ASU-SFI Biosocial Complexity Center at \nArizona State University, working at the intersection of artificial \nlife, theoretical physics and astrobiology. I\u2019m most interested in \nunderstanding fundamental principles of life and how life emerges from \nnon-life. My research team at ASU takes a broad approach to these \nproblems, with projects on life\u2019s origins, collective behavior, \nAI\/consciousness, information in biology, statistical approaches to \nbiochemistry, planetary life and biosignatures. With collaborators, I\u2019ve\n published in many ALIFE proceedings and in journals including PRL, \nPNAS, Astrobiology, Science, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, among others.\n I regularly co-organize workshops and conferences, including the 2015 \n\u2018Re-Conceptualizing the Origins of Life\u2019 at the intersection of origin \nof life and ALife research. I\u2019m active in public engagement, promoting \nALife-related research, including participating in the world science \nfestival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-6\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I am really honored to be nominated, especially since working across \nmany scientific communities I have found the ALife community among my \nfavorites. My goals as a board member are to:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Strengthen connections between ALIFE and other communities \nworking in closely related areas, particularly focusing on enhancing \nexchange between origins of life\/astrobiology and artificial life \nresearch, by serving as a liaison between these communities<\/li><li>Build on efforts within the ALife community and beyond to bring \nideas about artificial life to the public, with particular focus on \nencouraging more young people with creative ideas to pursue \nALife-related research<\/li><li>Support our early career researchers, helping them to advance ALife \nresearch and set future directions in the field, including building \nresources to aid in their career development, public speaking, and doing\n boundary-pushing science<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/emergence.asu.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"broken_link\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Cejkova\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Jitka_Cejkova\"><\/span><strong>Jitka Cejkova<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-7\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I work as an Assistant Professor at University of Chemistry and \nTechnology Prague. (I submitted Habilitation thesis titled \u201cChemical \nengineering contribution to artificial life research\u201d in February 2019).\n Besides wet-artificial-life-oriented research and teaching, I am \nactively involved into the science communication. My research focuses on\n the idea to use droplets as liquid robots (paper of the same name was \nawarded by ISAL as Outstanding Paper of 2017 in the field of Artificial \nLife). I regularly attend artificial life conferences, I organized a \nworkshop \u201cChemistry and artificial life forms\u201d in Newcastle. In the \noccasion of 100th anniversary of the word \u201crobot\u201d, that comes from Czech\n \u010capek\u2019s play R.U.R. I am preparing a book \u201cRobot 100\u201d (and around 30 \nAlifers already promised to contribute). I am organizing ALIFE 2021 \nconference in Prague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-7\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I would like to keep the artificial life community as great as it is.\n (Anyway there is always the space for some improvements). I would like \nto help the community by activities as follow: I will continue to \npromote artificial life field at non-ISAL conferences and invite other \nresearchers to our community. I will use my communication skills to \nintroduce the artificial life research also for non-experts (by using \nsocial and other media). I will look for financial support (sponsors, \ngrant proposals) that enables more intensive networking (organizing \nlocal meetings, summers schools, short term scientific missions). The \npriority will be to co-locate conferences and meetings, organizing \nworkshops at non-ISAL conferences. Alife community is like my family and\n I would like to be more active in organizing events for them and \nsupport the networking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/droplets.vscht.cz\/people\/cejkova\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Dolson\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Emily_Dolson\"><\/span><strong>Emily Dolson<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-8\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I am currently a postdoc at Cleveland Clinic in the United States. In\n Fall 2020, I will start a faculty position in the computer science \ndepartment at Michigan State University. I have been involved with the \nALife community for six years, serving as chair of the student\/postdoc \ngroup for the past 3. Recently, this position has lead me to begin the \nprocess of taking over as webmaster for the ISAL website. I have also \nbeen involved with the ALife data standards project, an attempt to \nstrengthen the ALife software ecosystem.   My research interests center \non understanding eco-evolutionary dynamics and how we can use spatially \nheterogeneity environments to control the evolution of complex \necological communities. Thus far, I have studied these questions in the \ncontext of evolutionary computation, digital evolution, and cancer. I \nalso have a crosscutting interest in open-ended evolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-8\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>While I have many long-term goals for the society (e.g. promoting \nstrengthened dialog with biologists, diversity, and broader public \nengagement) my concrete goals as a board member would center around \nreducing the barriers to entry for our field.   The work I have already \nbeen doing on the ISAL website represents a first step in this \ndirection, as I am migrating the website to a platform that will allow \nthese contributions. As a board member, I would organize the creation of\n a set of resources on how to do Artificial Life research (many have \nalready expressed interest in contributing). This repository would \nenable students and researchers from other fields to more rapidly \ndiscover ALife software and techniques, encouraging them to join our \ncommunity.  I am also excited about using the website as a tool to \nlaunch other projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.EmilyLDolson.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Andras\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Peter_Andras\"><\/span><strong>Peter Andras<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-9\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I am a Professor of Computer Science with strong interest in the \nevolution of biological and social systems and the modelling and \nsimulation of evolutionary processes. I have worked on protein \ninteraction networks, biological neural systems, and the evolution of \ncooperation and social institutions. I have written papers about the \norigins of life, FPGA implementation of synthetic neurons, neuron-scale \nanalysis of small biological neural systems, the role of uncertainty in \nthe evolution of cooperation. I have been involved in setting up three \nspin-off companies. I have extensive experience in setting up and \nrunning organisations inside and outside of academia, including the \nmanaging of social media presence. I have been on editorial boards of \ninterdisciplinary journals. I have attended ALife\/ECAL conferences since\n 2009, I have co-organised workshops at the recent conferences and \nco-guest edited a journal special issue on social learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-9\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>My aim will be to strengthen the society\u2019s links with industry, to \nget more engagement with AI focused companies and to bring artificial \nlife to the forefront of industrial applications. I will also aim engage\n with other organisations, especially think tanks and policy focused \norganisations, which can help to increase the awareness about the \nimportance and potential impact of artificial life research. I also see \nvery important the interaction and collaboration with funding \norganisations (government, charities, industry) in order to gather \nsupport for funding programmes aimed to artificial life researchers. \nFinally, I will also aim to have an active relationship with \nassociations of academic decision makers (e.g. deans, heads of \ndepartments) to ensure that sufficient volume of academic positions and \nappropriate career tracks are open for researchers working on artificial\n life topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scm.keele.ac.uk\/staff\/p_andras\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"broken_link\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Witkowski\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Olaf_Witkowski\"><\/span><strong>Olaf Witkowski<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-10\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>My first interdisciplinary experience was through my MSc \nthesis (2007), in &#8216;ethno-cryptography&#8217; with evolution and neural \nnetworks, which eventually led me to discover ALife, my favorite \nsoundboard community to this day.<\/li><li>I am a Director of Scientific Affairs and Chief Scientist at Cross \nLabs, in Tokyo. We founded this research institute to study the \nfundamental principles of intelligence, from cognitive neuroscience to \nALife, at the crossroads between academia and AI industry. I&#8217;m also \naffiliated with TokyoTech and the Institute for Advanced Study, and I&#8217;m \nteaching information science at the University of Tokyo.<\/li><li>My passion is to help foster cross-disciplinary research in physics \nof life and mind: in 2015, I co-founded YHouse\u00ad \u2013 a nonprofit \ntransdisciplinary research institute in New York focused on the study of\n awareness, artificial intelligence, and complex systems. I also had the\n pleasure to &#8216;program-co-chair&#8217; ALIFE 2018, and a few other ALife \nmeetings.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-10\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>My priorities are diversity, communication and impact:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Keep the community young, diverse, &#8216;scruffy&#8217; (Inman Harvey, \nALIFE 2018 keynote) and wildly creative. Keep ALife from crystallizing \ninto inert clusters, by fostering deep discussion across sub-fields at \nworkshops and conferences.<\/li><li>Engage in communication and outreach to continually renew and \nconnect our community with the outside, and actively share with \nneighboring communities: astrobiology\/OoL (e.g. ISSOL), AI (e.g. IMLS, \nNeurIPS), consciousness (e.g. ASSC), fundamental physics (e.g. FQXi), \nand many more. This will require a full rethink of our current \nsubmission formats (full paper vs. abstract vs. late-breaking) and \nonline management systems.<\/li><li>Contribute to human society and collaborate closely with the \nindustry, both on concrete applications and foundational theory of \nALife. I want to advocate for concrete synergies with the industry, \nincluding joint grants, yearly open challenges, shared positions, and \nbilateral collaborations towards progress in science and philosophy of \nlife and cognition.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/olafwitkowski.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Zaman\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Luis_Zaman\"><\/span><strong>Luis Zaman<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-11\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Hello! I am starting as an Assistant Professor at the University of \nMichigan in September of 2019. My appointment is joint between the \nEcology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) department, and the Center for \nthe Study of Complex Systems (CSCS). I earned a dual PhD in Computer \nScience and EEB from Michigan State University where I worked with \nCharles Ofria (ISAL Outgoing President) and Richard Lenski on a mixture \nof microbial and digital evolution. My research and teaching, though \nmostly oriented towards a biological audience, is deeply \ninterdisciplinary and draws heavily from the field of Artificial Life. I\n have attended many ALIFE\/ECAL and GECCO meetings, but in some ways I \nview my role within the society as more of an evangelist than an \norganizer. As someone primarily embedded within the broader evolutionary\n biology community, my goals have been focused on making ALife a \n\u201chousehold\u201d name in ecology and evolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-11\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a huge honor to be nominated for the ISAL board. I&#8217;ve always \nloved this community, and especially its willingness to explore what \nmight sometimes seem like obscure corners of the scientific landscape. \nMy goals as a board member would be to foster this kind of risk taking \nwithin the community, and to discourage attempts to make ALife more \nnarrowly defined. Of course, this raises a unique set of  challenges to \nthe success of a field. With that in mind, I think the question of \u201cwhat\n is life\u201d is poised to make another wave in popular science. I would \nstrongly argue we are the community that should have the authoritative \nposition. In summary, my goals are to 1) continue furthering the \nreputation of artificial life among biological sciences, 2) foster the \ncuriosity and playfulness that I admire so much in this community, and \n3) position the ALife community as the authoritative source on questions\n about what living systems are, and how we might understand them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/zeeelab.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Ofria\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Charles_Ofria\"><\/span><strong>Charles Ofria<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-12\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I am a Professor of Computer Science at Michigan State University, \ncurrent president of ISAL, and a dedicated member of the Artificial Life\n community since 1993 when I started developing the Avida research \nplatform.  I consistently advocate using Artificial Life techniques in \nbiology, and my own artificial life research has appeared in top-tier \nbiology journals.  In 2008 I united a group of computer scientists and \nevolutionary biologists to form the BEACON Center for the Study of \nEvolution in Action; I now direct the $47.5 million center, funded by \nthe US National Science Foundation. In 2012, I chaired ALIFE XIII, \nlinking it with the annual BEACON Congress and substantially increased \nparticipation of biologists.  Since 2016 I have been ISAL President, \nhelping to improve and grow the society.  My research involves \ncomputational experiments to understand fundamental evolutionary \ndynamics, including the evolution of complexity, major evolutionary \ntransitions, and the principles of open-ended evolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-12\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If elected my priorities will be to continue to:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Grow ISAL.  The society has been around for decades, but \nremains small due to few incentives and a confusing membership process. \n I will continue working toward taking over membership management to \nsimplify it, while building an inclusive community and expanding member \nadvantages.<\/li><li>Expand and unite the Artificial Life community.  Many researchers \nare already conducting Alife research, but don\u2019t realize it.  Those that\n come to our conferences end up having a more positive view of the \nfield, and often even join us.<\/li><li>Highlight the value of Alife for engaging the public and improving \nscientific understanding through art, games, and societal impacts.<\/li><li>Push open science by updating conference and journal policies (e.g.,\n open access options, badges for replicating experiments, etc) while \nproviding forums for effective collaboration and discussion.<\/li><li>Develop materials to streamline organizing ALIFE conferences, local Alife-based workshops, and student organizations.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/people\/profile\/ofria\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Risi\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Sebastian_Risi\"><\/span><strong>Sebastian Risi<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-13\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m an associate professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, where I\n co-direct the Robotics, Evolution and Art Lab (REAL). I&#8217;m interested in\n ALIFE topics such as neuroevolution, generative and developmental \nsystems, and open-ended evolution. Together with colleagues, I have \ndeveloped several ALIFE algorithms that facilitate the evolution of more\n complex artificial systems (Adaptive ES-HyperNEAT, Evolving Neural \nTuring Machines, Ribosomal Robots). Currently, I&#8217;m very excited by the \nemerging field of ALIFE projects at the intersection of digital and \nbiological systems, like our florarobotica.eu project that investigates \nsymbiotic relationships between robots and natural plants.   I have \nco-chaired several ALIFE-related events, such as the Complex Systems \ntrack at GECCO, an AAAI symposium about abstractions in AI research, and\n GECCO&#8217;s Virtual Creature Competition. For ALIFE 14 I organized the \nfirst ALIFE Science Visualisation Competition, to encourage \ncommunicating ideas from our field to a broader audience and \ncross-pollinating of ideas between different ALIFE subfields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-13\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I am honored to have been nominated as a candidate for the ISAL Board. If elected I would:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>continue to make ALIFE accessible to a broader audience through events such as Science Visualisation Competitions<\/li><li>foster more interactions between different ALIFE subfields by \norganizing workshops that explicitly encourage interdisciplinary work \nand introduce a new &#8220;best interdisciplinary paper&#8221; award<\/li><li>ALIFE ideas such as open-ended evolution or quality diversity have \nbeen highly influential in our field but are only starting to inspire \nothers. I will continue to be an ISAL ambassador to share our ideas with\n the machine learning, games, and robotics community.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Thank you for your consideration!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sebastianrisi.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Wiser\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Michael_Wiser\"><\/span><strong>Michael Wiser<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-14\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>My background is an evolutionary biologist.  I first got involved in \nthe ALife community as a grad student when my university hosted an ALife\n conference.  As a postdoc, I&#8217;ve been routinely attending the yearly \nmeetings, submitting and reviewing papers there and for the journal, and\n have written a book review for the journal.  My ALife-relevant research\n focuses on questions of repeatability and predictability in the \nevolutionary process, collaborating with computer scientists where I \ncontribute knowledge of the biological literature and statistics that \nmeshes well with their programming expertise to study biological \nprocesses in ways that are largely intractable with organic systems.  In\n addition to my basic science research, I&#8217;ve also been conducting \npedagogical research with the Avida-ED software, and have run a series \nof tutorials on that software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-14\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>My main goal as a board member would be to increase the participation\n of people in other disciplines who are doing work in or related to \nartificial life, but who don\u2019t see themselves as part of the artificial \nlife community. The two main scientific fields I am part of that I see \nas underrepresented in ALife are a) population biology (including \nevolution, ecology, astrobiology, etc), and b) science education. \nPopulation biology in particular has a lot to contribute to ALife, both \nin terms of insights into evolutionary and ecological processes, and \nalso in systematic statistical approaches to experimentation. Science \neducation experts would further be useful in helping us to quantify the \neffects of the multiple different educational tools in our field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msu.edu\/~mwiser\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Banzhaf\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Wolfgang_Banzhaf\"><\/span><strong>Wolfgang Banzhaf<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-15\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I am the John R. Koza Professor in Genetic Programming at Michigan \nState University, and member of the BEACON Center for the Study of \nEvolution in Action. In my past, I was chair of the executive of \nACM-SIGEVO, the ACM special interest group in evolutionary computing. I \nhave co-founded the journal Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, \nand am involved in the organization of the EvoStar series of conferences\n in Europe, and its sponsor, the SPECIES association. My interests are \nin EC and Alife, in particular Artificial Chemistries (see my book with \nthat title) and self-organizing processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-15\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I am very fond in sustainability issues. This is mainly political, \nbut also includes finding ways to make the ALIFE community (and \nconference) more sustainable. In the political realm we can be more \noutspoken as a community.  Also I am interested in fostering the ALIFE \ncommunity&#8217;s scientific achievements, e.g., by helping to get word about \nthis work in journals and books. One project I have taken on is a \nSpringer book series on Evolutionary Computing which is now very open to\n publish books on Artificial Life topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cse.msu.edu\/~banzhafw\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Yue\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Shigang_Yue\"><\/span><strong>Shigang Yue<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-16\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I am a Professor in Computer Science in the University of Lincoln, \nUnited Kingdom. I have been a contributor to the Artificial Life journal\n since 2007 and I am eager to engage more in ISAL. I have worked in many\n universities or institutions in the Europe and in east Asia. My \nresearch interests include artificial life, neural system modelling, \nswarm intelligence and robotics, especially the mechanisms of bio- or \nartificial visual neural systems and its applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-16\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe the ISAL should adapt to fit to the changing society and \nmore broader communities. There a few things I would promote if elected:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Expanding the scope, the content and the reach out of the \nALife journal to make it more inclusive, more relevant and more active.<\/li><li>Introducing Artificial Life research to young students with summer schools and\/or lab visits.<\/li><li>Electronic copy and access of the ALife journal to all ISAL members via email; content to all known and reachable readers.<\/li><li>Expanding the ISAL to the fast growing regions in east Asia with local hubs.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ciluk.org\/syue\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"broken_link\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Fellermann\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Harold_Fellermann\"><\/span><strong>Harold Fellermann<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-17\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I am an applied system scientist, currently working as a Lecturer in \nthe Interdisciplinary Computing and Complex Biosystems Research Group at\n the School of Computing, Newcastle University. My research interests \nare in complex systems, systems chemistry, systems biology, synthetic \nbiology and DNA nanotechnology. I am particularly interested in the \nprocessing of information by biomolecular systems and the emergence of \nbiological information. I have worked in the area of Artificial Life for\n the last 15 years and contributed numerous research articles to the \nArtificial Life journal and conferences. I have been head of the \norganizing committee of the ALIFE XII conference in 2010 and general \nchair of ALIFE 2019. Since 2018, I am appointed member of the ISAL board\n in the role of conference liaison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-17\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If elected, I would bring the role of Conference Liaison forward by \nsupporting future conference organizers with experience and advise. This\n involves establishing material and procedures that are currently \nreinvented by individual organizers time and again. In particular, I \nplan to homogenize the submission, review, and publication process (e.g.\n standing programme committee, ISAL authored reviewing guidelines, \nhomogenized acceptance rates etc.) All of this would be performed in \nclose consultation with the community. As demonstrated with ALIFE 2019, I\n am also keen on making our conferences demonstrators for more \nsustainable conferencing. Provided community interest, I would see that \nALIFE takes on a leading role in reducing the global carbon footprint of\n academic conferencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/harold.teerun.de\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alife.org\/news\/isal-board-elections-2019-candidate-statements#top\"><em>Return to top of page<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Penn\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Alexandra_Penn\"><\/span><strong>Alexandra Penn<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Background-18\"><\/span>Background<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Since my DPhil at Sussex I have worked on Major Transitions in \nEvolution, co-operation\/niche construction in bacterial biofilms, \nparticipatory management of industrial ecosystems and methods for \ndesigning and \u201csteering\u201d complex adaptive systems. I am now working with\n the UK government on new methods for making policy for complex adaptive\n systems, taking ALIFE approaches into the heart of government. I have \nrepeatedly combined theory with application and participation. With \nprojects from ecosystem selection to improve soil on degraded land; \ncitizen science on human-microbial co-evolution; applying design \nmethodology to manipulating biofilms; to putting complexity tools in the\n hands of stakeholders in regional economies. I have run numerous \ninterdisciplinary workshops, tracks and events at ECAL\/ALife and \nelsewhere.  I firmly believe that the creative, exploratory and \npractical spirit of Alife makes us ideally placed for contributing to \npositive societal futures. ALife and Complexity are not just problems to\n be dealt with or sources of ethical dilemmas, they are rich creative \nfonts of new ideas, approaches and technologies which will help us \ndevelop new ways of interacting with the world. As such I would like to \ngalvanise a collective effort in the ALife community to engage with big \nsocietal issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statement_of_Goals-18\"><\/span>Statement of Goals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I have been the ISAL ALIFE and Society Chair for the last 2 years. \nduring which I have run a society track at every conference, providing a\n space for new thinking, discussion and the inception of innovative new \nprojects. I have also created a home for ideas on societal impact in the\n Artificial Life journal. In all these formats the conversation has \nblossomed and deepened and I would love the chance to develop this \nfurther.  If re-elected I will continue this work, but go further to \nbring in diverse contributors from fields outside ALife, both academics \nand practitioners, to cross-pollinate ideas and maximise the benefit \nproduced and derived, expand the ALIFE journal section with accompanying\n online discussions and seminars and work on creative outreach and \nengagement in a wide variety of forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cress.soc.surrey.ac.uk\/web\/people\/apenn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"broken_link\">Candidate&#8217;s Home Page<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Candidates for Election to the ISAL Board of Directors September 2019 ISAL is electing five new members to its board of directors, to replace the current directors whose terms are expiring. 18 society members are standing for election, as listed below. Follow the links for each candidate&#8217;s election statement. 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