Participants

David S. Oderberg is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading, England and current Head of Department. He is the author of six books including Real Essentialism (2007) and The Metaphysics of Good and Evil (2020), as well as editing or co-editing several others in logic, metaphysics, and ethics, including Classifying Reality (2013). He is also the author of over seventy articles in metaphysics, philosophy of biology, ethics, philosophy of religion, and other subjects. In 2013 Professor Oderberg delivered the George Hourani Lectures at SUNY Buffalo. He also edits Ratio, an international journal of analytic philosophy, and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK.

Manus Patten is a teaching professor in the Department of Biology at Georgetown University. He takes a theoretical approach to studying evolutionary genetics and is especially interested in conflict, cooperation, and the levels of selection.

Arnaud Pocheville is a theoretical biologist and philosopher of science whose research concentrates on issues in evolutionary biology, including topics such as the structure of evolutionary time and the notion of biological information. His aim is to clarify current theoretical controversies (e.g. between niche construction theory and the extended phenotype perspective), such as by showing that the competing perspectives implicitly posit different hypotheses about the time-scale separability of the diverse biological phenomena they claim to consider (mostly development, ecology and evolution). He completed his PhD on the ecological niche concept at the laboratory Ecology and Evolution, École Normale Supérieure, Paris and held postdoctoral research positions in Theory and Methods in Biosciences group at the University of Sydney and at the Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh. He is currently a permanent research fellow at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

Thomas Reydon is Professor of Philosophy of Science and Technology in the Institute of Philosophy and the Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences (CELLS) at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. He is also Associated Faculty in the Socially Engaged Philosophy of Science (SEPOS) group at Michigan State University. He is a founding member and Board Member of the German Society for Philosophy of Science (GWP), a Steering Committee member of the European Advanced Seminar of the Philosophy of the Life Sciences (EASPLS), a co-Editor in Chief of the Journal for General Philosophy of Science, a co-Editor in Chief of the book series History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, and a former Associate Editor of the journal Acta Biotheoretica. His research focuses on evolutionary explanation; applications of evolutionary thinking in and outside the biological sciences; natural history; classification, classificatory concepts & natural kinds; and good academic practice.

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)
 

Derek Skillings is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He specializes in the philosophy of biology, philosophy of science, marine phylogeography and evolutionary ecology. He works primarily on biological individuality and explanation and causal reasoning in biology. He is particularly interested in the problem of how to approach the complex and hierarchical nature of living systems when investigating biological phenomena and constructing explanations.

Emilie Snell-Rood is an Associate Professor and Associate Head of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior in the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota. Emilie did her graduate work at the University of Arizona and a postdoc at Indiana University before starting at the University of Minnesota in 2011. Research in her lab asks why organisms vary in developmental and behavioral plasticity, and what this means for predicting responses to novel environments. She primarily uses butterflies as a study system, but also has experience working with beetles, bees, birds, and mammals. Emilie teaches Animal Behavior and a course on bio-inspired approaches to problem-solving. Her interests in bio-inspired design have led to a series of interdisciplinary collaborations developing educational modules for engineers and designers interested in looking to biodiversity for ideas in their own applications.

ANA M. SOTO, M.D. (Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Foreign Correspondent Member Centre Cavaillès, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris and Fellow, Collegium Ramazzini, Carpi) is a theoretical and experimental biologist. Her research interests include the control of cell proliferation, normal and neoplastic development, and biological autonomy and organization. In partnership with Professor Carlos Sonnenschein, they posited that the default state of cells in all organisms is proliferation and proposed the Tissue Organization Field Theory of Carcinogenesis, in which cancer is viewed as development gone awry. As the Blaise Pascal Chair at the ENS (2013-5) she coordinated a multidisciplinary working group devoted to the elaboration of a theory of organisms. She is a recipient of several honors including the 2012 Gabbay Biotechnology & Medicine Award, Brandeis University and the Grand Vermeil Medal, the highest distinction from the City of Paris for her pioneering role in the discovery of endocrine disruptors.