Steen Rasmussen (born 7 July 1955) is a Danish physicist mainly working in the areas of artificial life and complex systems. He is currently a professor in physics and a center director at University of Southern Denmark as well as an external research professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His formal training was at the Technical University of Denmark (1985 PhD in physics of complex systems) and University of Copenhagen (philosophy). He spent 20 years as a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory (1988-2007) the last five years as a leader of the Self-Organized Systems team. He has been part of the Santa Fe Institute since 1988.
The main scientific effort of Rasmussen has since 2001 has been to explore, understand and construct a transition from nonliving to living materials. Bridging this gap requires an interdisciplinary scientific effort, which is why he has assembled, sponsored and lead research teams in the US, across Europe and in Denmark. He became a scientific team leader in 2002 at Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA, and he has since held research leadership positions at the Santa Fe Institute, University of Copenhagen and University of Southern Denmark. In 2004 he represented Los Alamos National Laboratory scientifically in cofounding together with primarily European scientific institutions the European Centre for Living Technology in Venice, Italy where he later served as Chairman of the Science Board. Since late 2007 he has been the director of the Center for Fundamental Living Technology at University of Southern Denmark. In 2018 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award form the International Society of Artificial Life (ISAL)
Rasmussen has for many years been actively engaged in the public discourse regarding science and society and on this background he founded The Initiative for Science, Society and Policy (ISSP) in 2009. ISSP is currently funded by two Danish universities, has a Director, five Science Focus Leaders and a Science Board. In 2018 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society of Artificial Life (ISAL).
Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the American southwest. Best known for its central role in helping develop the first atomic bomb, LANL is one of the world's largest and most advanced scientific institutions.
Stanisław Marcin Ulam was a Polish mathematician, nuclear physicist and computer scientist. He participated in the Manhattan Project, originated the Teller–Ulam design of thermonuclear weapons, discovered the concept of the cellular automaton, invented the Monte Carlo method of computation, and suggested nuclear pulse propulsion. In pure and applied mathematics, he proved some theorems and proposed several conjectures.
The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, including physical, computational, biological, and social systems. The institute is ranked 24th among the world's "Top Science and Technology Think Tanks" and 24th among the world's "Best Transdisciplinary Research Think Tanks" according to the 2020 edition of the Global Go To Think Tank Index Reports, published annually by the University of Pennsylvania.
Norris Edwin Bradbury, was an American physicist who served as director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory for 25 years from 1945 to 1970. He succeeded Robert Oppenheimer, who personally chose Bradbury for the position of director after working closely with him on the Manhattan Project during World War II. Bradbury was in charge of the final assembly of "the Gadget", detonated in July 1945 for the Trinity test.
Wojciech Hubert Zurek is a Polish theoretical physicist and a leading authority on quantum theory, especially decoherence and non-equilibrium dynamics of symmetry breaking and resulting defect generation.
Christopher Gale Langton is an American computer scientist and one of the founders of the field of artificial life. He coined the term in the late 1980s when he organized the first "Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems" at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1987. Following his time at Los Alamos, Langton joined the Santa Fe Institute (SFI), to continue his research on artificial life. He left SFI in the late 1990s, and abandoned his work on artificial life, publishing no research since that time.
Norman Harry Packard is a chaos theory physicist and one of the founders of the Prediction Company and ProtoLife. He is an alumnus of Reed College and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Packard is known for his contributions to chaos theory, complex systems, and artificial life. He coined the phrase "the edge of chaos".
George Arthur Cowan was an American physical chemist, a businessman and philanthropist.
Matthias Mann is a German physicist and biochemist. He is doing research in the area of mass spectrometry and proteomics.
David Pines was a US physicist recognized for his work in quantum many-body systems in condensed matter and nuclear physics. With his advisor David Bohm, he contributed to the understanding of electron interactions in metals. Bohm and Pines introduced the plasmon, the quantum of electron density oscillations in metals. They pioneered the use of the random phase approximation. His work with John Bardeen on electron-phonon interactions led to the development of the BCS theory of superconductivity. Pines extended BCS theory to nuclear physics to explain stability of isotopes with even and odd numbers of nucleons. He also used the theory of superfluidity to explain the glitches in neutron stars.
Petr Chýlek is a researcher for Space and Remote Sensing Sciences at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Chýlek received his diploma in theoretical physics from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. He received his Ph.D. in physics from UC Riverside in 1970. Prior to becoming a government researcher in 2001, Chýlek was a professor at several US and Canadian universities, including SUNY Albany, Purdue University, University of Oklahoma and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.
Peter Brent Littlewood, FRS is a British physicist and Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago. He was the 12th Director of Argonne National Laboratory. He previously headed the Cavendish Laboratory as well as the Theory of Condensed Matter group and the Theoretical Physics Research department at Bell Laboratories. Littlewood serves as the founding chair of the board of trustees of the Faraday Institution.
Los Alamos is a census-designated place in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, United States, that is recognized as one of the development and creation places of the atomic bomb—the primary objective of the Manhattan Project by Los Alamos National Laboratory during World War II. The town is located on four mesas of the Pajarito Plateau, and had a population of about 13,200 as of 2020. It is the county seat and one of two population centers in the county known as census-designated places (CDPs); the other is White Rock.
Richard C. Slansky was an American theoretical physicist.
Mark Galassi is a physicist, computer scientist, and contributor to the free and open-source software movement. He was born in Manhattan, grew up in France and Italy, and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Johndale C. Solem is an American theoretical physicist and Fellow of Los Alamos National Laboratory. Solem has authored or co-authored over 185 technical papers in many different scientific fields. He is known for his work on avoiding comet or asteroid collisions with Earth and on interstellar spacecraft propulsion.
The Initiative for Science, Society and Policy (ISSP) is a research center sponsored by the University of Southern Denmark and Roskilde University, Denmark.
Alan Reginald Bishop is an internationally recognized British/American physicist and academic, specializing in condensed matter theory, statistical physics, and nonlinear physics. He retired as Principal Associate Director - Science, Technology, and Engineering at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2018.
Sergey I. Bozhevolnyi is a Russian-Danish physicist. He is currently a professor and the leader for the Centre for Nano Optics at the University of Southern Denmark.
Erica Jen was an American applied mathematician. She was a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a faculty member at the University of Southern California, and a scientific director and faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute.