Participants

Pierrick is a philosopher of biology at Macquarie University, in Australia, with a background in evolutionary biology and ecology. Pierrick works mainly on conceptual issues related to evolutionary theory, the concept of biological individuality, and major transitions in evolution. He also has interests in the philosophy of causation and cognitive science.
Pierrick has recently published a short book at Cambridge University Press in which he explores the status of units and levels of selection in evolutionary theory. He proposes a suite of criteria to distinguish genuine from arbitrary or conventional units and levels of selection.

Alvaro Moreno Bergareche is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Born in Donostia-San Sebastián, he is a specialist in the areas of Philosophy of Science & Philosophy of Biology, Artificial Life, Complex Systems and Philosophy of Cognitive Science. Professor Moreno has been the principal investigator in many funded projects (funding institutions include: Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, Basque Government, University of the Basque Country), and participated to several others, including European research networks. He has also participated as Review Expert in the evaluation of proposals submitted to the European Commission for funding and/or review of projects being funded by the Commission). He has organized many international conferences and workshops on the relation between Artificial Life and AI, philosophy of biology and cognitive science, and complex systems at large. He has been member of the organizational and/or program committee of more than 20 international conferences, and he is since many years regular member of the program committee of the Artificial Life conferences (ALIFE) and the European Conferences on Artificial Life (ECAL). He has organized a Doctorate Program on Complex Systems, awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, and has supervised many PhD theses, most of them obtaining the highest marks. He is also co-founder of the Spanish Network of Cognitive Sciences (http://retecog.net) and has been actively involved in the dissemination of science, and he led the project for the creation of the Museum of Science in San Sebastian (Spain) (www.miramon.org). His work has received a growing international recognition, which is confirmed by the invitations he regularly receives to give lectures in different countries, and the numerous national and international awards he received.bHe has developed, together with numerous collaborators and students, both local and international, a distinctive interdisciplinary research line on Biological Autonomy, which bridges philosophy and science and has obtained significant international projection. This achievement is reflected in the creation of the IAS–Research Centre for Life, Mind & Society (http://www.ias-research.net), which has become a reference in Europe in its domain.

Bernd Rosslenbroich is an evolutionary biologist at Witten/Herdecke University, Germany. His general interests are patterns and processes in macroevolution, systems biology, and philosophy of biology and medicine. The approach of his team is to analyze morphological and physiological patterns and trends and then to learn about underlying processes. He is especially interested in organismic concepts of biology which take due account of the specific characteristics of the organism. Further he is interested in general zoology and watching nature (including birding) in field trips and on journeys for example to Northern Europe, Africa and Malaysia.
Books:
Rosslenbroich B (2014): On the Origin of Autonomy. A New Look at the Major Transitions in Evolution. Springer Cham, Heidelberg, New York, Dordrecht, London
Rosslenbroich B: Properties of Life – Towards a Theory of Organismic Biology (book manuscript, currently under review)