People

Evo Devo Universe is a global community of theoretical and applied physicists, chemists, biologists, cognitive and social scientists, computer scientists, technologists, philosophers, information theorists, complexity scholars and systems theorists who are interested in better characterizing the relationship and difference between evolutionary and developmental processes in the universe and its subsystems. The project originated from John Smart and Clément Vidal in Jan 2008.

Directors

EDU Directors do the main work of maintaining and moderating the research community, on a part-time basis (in alpha order by last name).

• Georgi Georgiev, physicist working on understanding the mechanisms for the measured exponential growth in complexity through time.
  Affiliations: Professor, Assumption College, Worcester, MA USA

• John M. Smart, systems theorist studying accelerating change and evolutionary development.
  Affiliations: Professor, University of Advancing Technology, Tempe, AZ USA; President, Acceleration Studies Foundation, Mountain View, CA USA

• Clement Vidal, philosopher of science and cosmology, focusing on natural, comprehensive and systematic philosophy.
  Affiliations: Grad Student, Vrije Universiteit Brussels; Researcher, Centre Leo Apostel, Evolution, Complexity and Cognition Group, Global Brain Institute, Brussels, Belgium.

Institutionally-Affiliated Scholars

The following institutionally-affiliated scholars have agreed to publicly endorse and participate in the EDU interdisciplinary research community at some level to date. Other scholars can be found on our listserve, EDU-Talk. Listings are in alpha order by last name:

• Diederik Aerts, scholar in quantum physics, philosophy of science, and the construction of integrated worldviews.
  Affiliations: Professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussels - VUB; Director, Centre Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies, Brussels, Belgium

• Robin Allott, author and scholar in linguistics, evolutionary psychology, and linguistic theories of cultural evolution.
  Affiliations:

• Robert Aunger, evolutionary transitions theorist, expert in evolution of behavior, motivation, morality, technology, culture and complexity.
  Affiliations:

• Yaneer Bar-Yam, President of NECSI, developing new methods for the study of complex systems with application to scientific questions and social concerns.
  Affiliations:

• Jon Beach, Author and scholar interested in the relationship between biological evolution, technological innovation and human consciousness.
  Affiliations:

• Martin Beech, astronomer and professor, researching stellar evolution, meteorites and terraforming but also history of science and global issues.
  Affiliations:

• Adrian Bejan, distinguished engineering scientist, discoverer of the constructal law, a physical law of design generation in nature.
  Affiliations:

• Howard Bloom, distinguished author and scholar of cosmology, biology, paleontology and sociology.
  Affiliations:

• Rick Bradford, physicist, cosmologist and engineer, researching cosmic coincidences and fine-tuning.
  Affiliations:

• William R. Buckley, author and scholar of machine self-replication and machine ontogeny.
  Affiliations:

• José Roberto Campanha, theoretical physicist and scholar in power law distributions and evolution.
  Affiliations:

• John Campbell, researcher in evolutionary process in the universe, including Quantum Darwinism.
  Affiliations:

• Jean Chaline, paleontologist and biologist applying scale relativity theory to biological and human evolution.
  Affiliations:

• John Chelen, scholar in cellular automata, information theory, intelligence, cosmology and quantum physics.
  Affiliations:

• Milan M. Cirkovic, astrophysicist and scholar in cosmology, astrobiology, philosophy of science and futures studies.
  Affiliations:

• James A. Coffman, developmental biologist and scholar interested in the relationship between development and causality.
  Affiliations: Associate Professor, Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory

• Lee Cronin, chemist, scholar in inorganic (non-carbon-based) cells, self-assembly, self-organization, and chemical evolution.
  Affiliations:

• Bruce Damer, researcher and author employing digital simulation in space, complexity and origin of life challenges.
  Affiliations:

• Jean-Paul Delahaye, prolific author, science popularizer, mathematician, computer scientist researching algorithmic theory and its relation to our universe.
  Affiliations:

• Joël de Rosnay, systems theorist, futurist, prolific author, and scholar in symbiosis and computer science.
  Affiliations:

• Steven J. Dick, historian of science, prolific author, expert on astrobiology, astrosociology, and SETI.
  Affiliations:

• Taner Edis, physicist, philosopher, scholar of complex systems and the naturalistic world view.
  Affiliations:

• Börje Ekstig, physicist, scholar of biological, social and technol. evolution, proposer of condensation of development.
  Affiliations:

• George F. R. Ellis, one of the world's leading theorists in cosmology. See the wikipedia article.
  Affiliations:

• Charles Fadel, founder, Center for Curriculum Redesign; scholar in global systems dynamics and educational curricula for the 21st century.
  Affiliations:

• Rainer Feistel, physicist and oceanographer, generalizing the concept of Huxley ritualization in animal behavior.
  Affiliations:

• James N. Gardner, complexity theorist, scholar in philosophy, and proposer of the selfish biocosm hypothesis.
  Affiliations:

• Georgi Georgiev, physicist working on understanding the mechanisms for the measured exponential growth in complexity through time.
  Affiliations:

• Carlos Gershenson, complexity theorist, researching self-organization, evolution, ALife, and cognition.
  Affiliations:

• Richard Gordon, embryologist and theoretical biologist exploring development, genetics, and evolution.
  Affiliations:

• Hari Mohan Gupta, theoretical physicist and scholar in power law distributions and evolution.
  Affiliations:

• William P. Hall, evolutionary biologist and organization theorist focusing on autopoiesis, emergence, and knowledge.
  Affiliations:

• William F. Harms, philosopher and scholar in cultural evolution, information, and moral ecologies.
  Affiliations:

• Stevan Harnad, cognitive scientist researching categorization, communication and consciousness.
  Affiliations:

• Francis Heylighen, systems theorist and cyberneticist focusing on the evolution of complexity.
  Affiliations:

• David Holcman, mathematician and computational biologist modeling microstructures in biological systems.
  Affiliations:

• Gerard Jagers op Akkerhuis, ecologist and systems theorist interested in the hierarchical evolution of particles.
  Affiliations:

• Hippokratis Kiaris, biologist and scholar interested in the role of the evolutionary and developmental microenvironment in health and disease.
  Affiliations:

• Hans Kuijper, sinologist turned systems scientist; application of complexity science to country and area studies.
  Affiliations:

• Otto Laske, epistemologist, psychologist, composer, poet, digital painter, founder of the Interdevelopmental Institute.
  Affiliations:

• John A. Leslie, philosopher of science and cosmology, distinguished scholar in anthropic reasoning.
  Affiliations:

• Giuseppe Longo, mathematician, researcher in logic, theory of computation, interfaces between mathematics, physics, biology.
  Affiliations:

• Nicolás Lori, interdisciplinary researcher interested in neuroscience, logic and physics.
  Affiliations:

• Jean-Pierre Luminet, astrophysicist presently specializing in black holes and cosmology.
  Affiliations:

• John McCrone, science writer and researcher in hierarchy theory, logic and mind science.
  Affiliations:

• G. Rama Murthy, computer engineer and specialist in neural networks and intelligent systems.
  Affiliations:

• Akop P. Nazaretyan, psychologist, culturologist, scholar of big (universal) history.
  Affiliations:

• Laurent Nottale, cosmologist and pioneering theorist in scale relativity and fractal space-time.
  Affiliations:

• Robert L. Oldershaw, cosmologist and philosopher studying discrete fractal paradigms and hierarchical systems theory.
  Affiliations:

• Steve Omohundro studies self-improving artificial intelligence and the evolution of natural intelligence.
  Affiliations:

• Alain Prochiantz, neurobiologist and specialist of cerebral morphogenesis and stochastic developmental processes.
  Affiliations:

• C. Henning Reschke, researcher in social evolutionary paradigms, information organisation and processes of change.
  Affiliations:

• Marko A. Rodriguez computer and cognitive scientist studying graph theory and its application to various areas including collective intelligence.
  Affiliations:

• Stanley N. Salthe, theoretical biologist, scholar in developmentalism, thermodynamics, ecology and natural philosophy.
  Affiliations:

• John M. Smart, systems theorist studying accelerating change and evolutionary development.
  Affiliations: Professor, University of Advancing Technology, Tempe, AZ USA; President, Acceleration Studies Foundation, Mountain View, CA USA

• Tony Smith, complex systems analyst studying emergence, cellular automata, and discrete processes.
  Affiliations:

• Fred Spier, anthropologist, scholar of big history (cosmic origins to modern society).
  Affiliations:

• Eric Steinhart is a computer scientist and philosopher interested in the application of evolutionary principles in fundamental ontology.
  Affiliations:

• John Stewart, evolutionary thinker, author and evolutionary activist.
  Affiliations:

• Robert E. Ulanowicz, eminent ecologist, pioneer of developmental ascendancy, and scholar of process philosophy.
  Affiliations:

• Rüdiger Vaas, astronomy editor of "Bild der Wissenschaft" and philosopher, focusing on cosmology (big bang, time, multiverse, far future) and anthropology.
  Affiliations:

• Pushkar G. Vaidya, astrobiologist, author, and proposer of the cosmic contact censorship hypothesis.
  Affiliations:

• Clement Vidal, philosopher of science and cosmology, focusing on natural, comprehensive and systematic philosophy.
  Affiliations:

• Jan Visser, physicist and cog. scientist, scholar in learning development from evolutionary and ecological perspectives.
  Affiliations:

• Bruce H. Weber, professor of biochemistry emeritus, and scholar in evolution, development, self-organization, natural selection, and complex systems.
  Affiliations:

• Hector Zenil, researcher in experimental algorithmic theory and its relation to the physical world.
  Affiliations:

Have you done research (peer reviewed or trade articles) in any topics related to EDU research questions? Please email Clement Vidal about being listed here, and if interested, fill-in the EDU-Talk subscription form to join the listserve discussions on these issues!

Independent Scholars

The following independent scholars, whose published work advances evolutionary and developmental scholarship in the estimation of the EDU community, have agreed to publicly endorse and participate in the community at some level to date. Other scholars can be found on our listserve, EDU-Talk. Listings are in alpha order by last name:

• Mary Ann Allison, author and scholar of complexity and evolutionary process in sociology and culture.
  Affiliations: Independent Scholar; Principal, The Allison Group, Brooklyn, NY

• Michael Chorost, author and scholar in human-machine interfaces and social and technological evolution and development.
  Affiliations: Independent Scholar, Science Writer; External Advisory Boards for Neuroscience Research, Northwestern and Brown Universities; Washington, DC

Are you an independent scholar who has done notable peer-reviewed research in topics related to EDU Themes? Please email Clement Vidal about being listed here, and if interested, fill-in the EDU-Talk subscription form to join the listserve discussions on these issues!

Associates

EDU Associates help with research community building, on a part-time basis (in alpha order by last name).

• Arnaud J. Blanchard, computer and cognitive scientist, scholar in intelligent systems, imitation, and emotion.
  Affiliations:

• James N. Gardner, complexity theorist, scholar in philosophy, proposer of the selfish biocosm hypothesis.
  Affiliations:

• Hans Kuijper, sinologist turned systems scientist; application of complexity science to country/area studies.
  Affiliations:

• Stefan Pernar, independent systems scholar, philosopher, and author.
  Affiliations:

• Eyal Sivan, integration architect studying ethics and social systems, proposer of the connective hypothesis.
  Affiliations:

Available Associate activities (per your interest and ability):

• Finding scholars from diverse backgrounds interested in exploring evolutionary and/or developmental models of universal change
• Building an EDU bibliography, doing wiki editing or authorship projects
• Peer-reviewing scholarly articles
• Helping with conference preparation (call for papers, minor organizational activities)

All Interested Scholars: Would you like to help manage and grow the EDU community? Can you commit at least four hours a week over a minimum of four months to help develop our community? Please email John Smart about becoming an Associate. All EDU members are welcome to participate in our fortnightly EDU Project teleconferences. Associates who participate actively and regularly may be asked to become Directors.