Dr. Carlos Gershenson-García

Research Interests

• Complexity: Self-organization, evolution of complexity, agent-based modeling, information, networks.

• Artificial Life: origin and evolution of life, robustness, random Boolean networks, discrete dynamic networks.

• Cognitive Science: origin and evolution of situated-embodied-dynamic cognitive systems, adaptive behavior, animats, virtual laboratories, concept construction and sharing, artificial societies.

• Engineering: design and control of self-organizing systems, methodologies, biologically-inspired systems, coordination, synchronization, traffic control, adaptive communication protocols.

• Philosophy of Science.

Academic Education

• PhD in Sciences, summa cum laude, at the Centrum Leo Apostel of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium (2002-2007), on “Design and Control of Self-organizing Systems” (With a scholarship from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT)).

• MSc in Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems, School of Cognitive and Computer Sciences, University of Sussex, UK (2001-2002) (With a scholarship from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT)). Thesis: A Comparison of Different Cognitive Paradigms Using Simple Animats in a Virtual Laboratory, with Implications to the Notion of Cognition.

• BEng in Computer Engineering at the Fundación Arturo Rosenblueth, México. 9.72/10.0 avg. Thesis: “Artificial Societies of Intelligent Agents”, Valedictorian with Honours (1996-2001).

• Coursed five semesters of Philosophy at Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. 8.5/10.0 avg. (1998-2001).

• Research student at project Genia, directed by Dr. Jaime Lagunez (1997-2001) at the Instituto de Química, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

• Student at the Karyn Kupcinet International Summer School, in the Theoretical Mathematics Department of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel (1999).

• Advanced Mathemathics course at the Escuela Superior de Física y Matemáticas del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, México (1993).

• High School: 9.3/10.0 avg. at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria No. 6 “Antonio Caso”, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Outstanding student (1993-1996).

Professional Appointments

• Researcher, Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (2008-).

• Postdoctoral Fellow. Vrije Universiteit Brussel and New England Complex Systems Institute (2007-2008)

• Assistant Researcher, Centrum Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies. Free University of Brussels (VUB) (2002-2007).

• Collaborator with La Jornada newspaper (In the scientific supplement) (1998-)

• Web developer for the Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems Group, School of Cognitive and Computer Sciences, University of Sussex (2002).
• Development Director of Principia Informatica (Coordination of Graduate Studies at the Universidad Autónoma del Carmen, Development of Internet applications, taught Internet Technologies graduate course) (1999-2001).

• Consulting for Tecnología, Medios y Aplicaciones (Tecnomedia). Worked as developer for the project Astra of TELMEX (2001).

• Director of Software Development of Praktisch Kontakt México (1998-2000). (Project Leader and Developer in various Internet projects).

• Teacher at the Diplomado en Informática Médica in the Facultad de Medicina, UNAM. (Artificial Intelligence graduate course) (2000).

• Teacher at the Fundación Arturo Rosenblueth (1999-2000) (Introduction to Computing undergraduate courses).

Professional Service

• Editor-in-Chief for Complexity Digest (http://turing.iimas.unam.mx/~comdig/) (2009-) and Contributing Editor (2001-2008).

• Complexity-at-Large Editor for the journal Complexity (2009-).

• Webmaster for the International Society of Artificial Life (http://alife.org) (2002-)

• Book and Software Review Editor for the Artificial Life journal, MIT Press (2004-)

• Editorial Board: CopIt ArXives (2007-)
  

• Ad hoc Editor: Special issue on the Evolution of Complexity. Artificial Life 14(3), Summer 2008. Together with Tom Lenaerts.

• Ad hoc Reviewer:

• For Books: MIT Press.

• For Journals: Artificial Life, Artificial Intelligence, Advances in Complex Systems, Complexity, Entropy, Physica A, Physica D, Europhysics Letters,  European Physical Journal B, Adaptive Behavior, Information Sciences, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics---Part C: Applications and Reviews, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Journal of Cellular Automata, International Journal of Unconventional Computing, Neural Computing & Applications, Acta Biotheoretica, International Journal for Equity in Health, Foundations of Science, HFSP Journal, Pueblos y Fronteras.

• For Volumes: Merelli, E., P. Gonzalez and A. Omicini (eds) (2005). LNCS Transaction on Computational Systems Biology.

• Workshop organization:

• Workshop on the Evolution of Complexity, at the ALife X conference. Indiana University, June 3^rd, 2006. Together with Tom Lenaerts.

• Philosophy and Complexity session of the Complexity, Science and Society Conference 2005. University of Liverpool. September 11-15, 2005.

• Programme Committee:

• 2010 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, Barcelona, Spain.
  
• EvoCOMPLEX 2010: Evolutionary Algorithms and Complex System, Istambul, Turkey.

• International Conference on Evolutionary Computation - ICEC 2009, Madeira, Portugal.
  

• Swarm Cognition Workshop at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2009, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

• SASO 2009: Third IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems. San Francisco, CA, USA.

• PROTOCOL-2009: International Workshop on Theory and Practice of Programming Collectives. San Francisco, CA, USA.

• International Symposium on Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems (SSS'09), Self-Organizing Systems track. Lyon, France.
  

• 2009 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation,  Special Session on Artificial Biochemical Networks. Trondheim, Norway.

• "Self-Organization in Pervasive Distributed Systems" track at the 24th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
  

• The First International Conference on the Evolution and Development of the Universe. 2008, Paris, France.
  

• International Workshop on Nonlinear Synchronization and Applications 2008, Klagenfurt, Austria.
  

• Epistemological Perspectives on Simulation (EPOS 2008), Lisbon, Portugal.
  

• International Conference on Complex Systems, ICCS2007. Boston, MA.

• 3rd Workshop on Artificial Life and Evolutionary Algorithms (ALEA), Guimarães, Portugal.

• ECCS 2007, European Conference on Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany.

• Multi-Agents for modelling Complex Systems (MA4CS 2007), Dresden, Germany.

• ECAL 2007, IXth European Conference on Artificial Life. Lisbon, Portugal.

• International Conference on Complex Systems, ICCS2006. Boston, MA.

• ALife X, the Tenth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems. Indiana University.

• ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life. University of Kent.

• International Congress on Computational Intelligence, CIIC-2005. Montería, Colombia.

• Multi-Agent Systems and Complexity session of the Complexity, Science and Society Conference 2005. University of Liverpool.

• International Congress on Computational Intelligence, CIIC-2003, National University of Colombia, Campus Medellín City

Publications

Abstracts, full articles and unpublished/submitted papers not listed here are available at http://turing.iimas.unam.mx/~cgg/pubs.html

Books

• Gershenson, C. (Ed.) (2008) Complexity: 5 Questions. Automatic Press/VIP. ISBN 8792130135.
  
• Gershenson, C. (2007). Design and Control of Self-organizing Systems. CopIt ArXives, Mexico. TS0002EN.
  
• Gershenson, C., D. Aerts, and B. Edmonds (Eds.). (2007). Worldviews, Science and Us: Philosophy and Complexity. World Scientific, Singapore. ISBN 978-981-270-548-8.
  

Theses

• Gershenson, C. (2007). Design and Control of Self-organizing Systems. PhD Thesis. Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
• Gershenson, C. (2002). A Comparison of Different Cognitive Paradigms Using Simple Animats in a Virtual Laboratory, with Implications to the Notion of Cognition. Unpublished MSc Thesis. School of Cognitive and Computer Sciences. University of Sussex, U.K.
• Gershenson, C. (2001). Artificial Societies of Intelligent Agents. Unpublished BEng Thesis. Fundación Arturo Rosenblueth, México.

In Journals

• Gershenson, C. & Pineda, L. A. (2009). Why does public transport not arrive on time?  The pervasiveness of equal headway instability. PLoS ONE 4(10): e7292.
• Gershenson, C. and T. Lenaerts (2008) Evolution of Complexity. Artificial Life 14(3):241–243.
• Gershenson, C. (2008). Book Review: "Self-Organization and Emergence in Life Sciences", edited by Bernard Feltz, Marc Crommelinck and Philippe Goujon. Artificial Life 14 (2):239-240.
  
• Gershenson, C. (2008). Towards Self-Organizing Bureaucracies. International Journal of Public Information Systems 2008(1):1-24.
  
• Gershenson, C. (2007). Book Review: "Life Evolving: Molecules, Mind, and Meaning", by Christian De Duve. Artificial Life 13 (1):91-92.
• Gershenson, C. (2005). Self-Organizing Traffic Lights. Complex Systems 16 (1): 29-53.
• Gershenson, C. (2004). Cognitive Paradigms: Which One is the Best? Cognitive Systems Research, 5 (2):135-156, June 2004.
• Heylighen, F. and C. Gershenson (2003). The Meaning of Self-organization in Computing. IEEE Intelligent Systems 18 (4):72-75, July/August 2003.
• Gershenson, C. (2002). Philosophical Ideas on the Simulation of Social Behaviour. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 5 (3).

In Books

• Gershenson, C. (2007). Towards a General Methodology for Designing Self-Organizing Systems. In Bogg, J. and R. Geyer (eds.) Complexity, Science and Society. pp. 97-99. Radcliffe Publishing, Oxford.
• Gershenson, C., D. Aerts, and B. Edmonds (2007). Introduction. In Gershenson, C., D. Aerts, and B. Edmonds (Eds.). Worldviews, Science and Us: Philosophy and Complexity, pp. 1-4. World Scientific, Singapore.
• Cools, S.-B., C. Gershenson, and B. D'Hooghe (2007). Self-organizing traffic lights: A realistic simulation. In Prokopenko, M. (Ed.). Self-Organization: Applied Multi-Agent Systems, Chapter 3, pp. 41-49. Springer, London.
  
• Heylighen, F., P. Cilliers, and C. Gershenson (2007). Complexity and Philosophy. In Bogg, J. and R. Geyer (eds.) Complexity, Science and Society. Radcliffe Publishing, Oxford.
• Gershenson, C. and F. Heylighen (2005). How can we think the complex? In Richardson, Kurt (Ed.) Managing the Complex Volume One: Philosophy, Theory, Application. Chapter 3, pp. 47-62. Information Age Publishing.

In Proceedings

• Das, A., M. Marko, A. Probst, M. A. Porter, and C. Gershenson (2008). Neural Net Model for Featured Word Extraction. In Minai, A. A. and Bar-Yam, Y. (Eds.), Unifying Themes in Complex Systems Vol. IV. pp. 353-362. Springer. Also InterJournal of Complex Systems, 539 (2002).
• Gershenson, C. (2007). The World as Evolving Information. In Proceedings of International Conference on Complex Systems ICCS2007.
  
• Rodriguez, M.A., Watkins, J.H., Bollen, J., Gershenson, C. (2007) Using RDF to Model the Structure and Process of Systems. In Proceedings of International Conference on Complex Systems ICCS2007. Also LA-UR-07-5720.
  
• Rodriguez, M.A., Steinbock, D.J., Watkins, J.H., Gershenson, C., Bollen, J., Grey, V., deGraf, B. (2007). Smartocracy: Social Networks for Collective Decision Making, Proceedings of the 40th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2007 pp. 90-99. Also LA-UR-06-2244.
• Gershenson, C., S. A. Kauffman, and I. Shmulevich (2006). The Role of Redundancy in the Robustness of Random Boolean Networks. In Rocha, L. M., L. S. Yaeger, M. A. Bedau, D. Floreano, R. L. Goldstone, and A. Vespignani (Eds.), Artificial Life X, Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems. pp. 35-42. MIT Press.
• Gershenson, C. and T. Lenaerts (2006). Evolution of Complexity: Introduction to the Workshop. Artificial Life X Workshop Proceedings. pp. 71-72.
• Gershenson, C. (2004). Updating Schemes in Random Boolean Networks: Do They Really Matter? In Pollack, J., M. Bedau, P. Husbands, T. Ikegami, and R. A. Watson (eds.) Artificial Life IX, Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems. pp. 238-243. MIT Press.
• Gershenson, C. (2004). Introduction to Random Boolean Networks. In Bedau, M., P. Husbands, T. Hutton, S. Kumar, and H. Suzuki (eds.) Workshop and Tutorial Proceedings, Ninth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (ALife IX). pp. 160-173.
• Gershenson, C. and F. Heylighen (2004). Protocol Requirements for Self-organizing Artifacts: Towards an Ambient Intelligence In Proceedings of International Conference on Complex Systems ICCS2004. Also VUB AI-Lab Memo 04-04.
• de la Mora-B., C.-R., C. Gershenson and García-Vega, A. (2004). Representation Development and Behavior Modifiers. In Lemaître, C., C. A. Reyes, and J. A. González (Eds.) Advances in Artificial Intelligence – IBERAMIA 2004: 9th Ibero-American Conference on AI. p. 504. LNAI 3315. Springer.
• Gershenson, C. and F. Heylighen (2003). When Can we Call a System Self-organizing? In Banzhaf, W, T. Christaller, P. Dittrich, J. T. Kim, and J. Ziegler, Advances in Artificial Life, 7^th European Conference, ECAL 2003, Dortmund, Germany, pp. 606-614. LNAI 2801. Springer.
• Gershenson, C., J. Broekaert, and D. Aerts (2003). Contextual Random Boolean Networks. In Banzhaf, W, T. Christaller, P. Dittrich, J. T. Kim, and J. Ziegler, Advances in Artificial Life, 7^th European Conference, ECAL 2003, Dortmund, Germany, pp. 615-624. LNAI 2801. Springer.
• Gershenson, C. (2003). Comparing Different Cognitive Paradigms with a Virtual Laboratory. IJCAI-03: Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 1635-6. Morgan Kaufmann.
• Gershenson, C. (2002). Complex Philosophy. Proceedings of the 1^st Biennial Seminar on Philosophical, Methodological & Epistemological Implications of Complexity Theory. La Habana, Cuba. Also in InterJournal of Complex Systems, 544.
• Gershenson, C. (2002). Behaviour-based Knowledge Systems: An Epigenetic Path from Behaviour to Knowledge. In Prince, C. G., Y. Demiris, Y. Marom, H. Kozima, and C. Balkenius (eds). Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics: Modelling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems. pp. 35-41. Lund University Cognitive Studies 94.
• Gershenson, C. (2002). Classification of Random Boolean Networks. In Standish, R. K., M. A. Bedau, and H. A. Abbass (eds.) Artificial Life VIII: Proceedings of the Eight International Conference on Artificial Life. pp. 1-8. Sydney, Australia. MIT Press.
• Gershenson, C., M. A. Porter, A. Probst, M. Marko, and A. Das. (2002) A Study on the Relevance of Information in Discriminative and Non-Discriminative Media. InterJournal of Complex Systems, 533.
• Marko, M., M. A. Porter, A. Probst, C. Gershenson, and A. Das (2002). Transforming the World Wide Web into a Complexity-Based Semantic Network. InterJournal of Complex Systems, 568.
• Gershenson, C. (2001). Comments to Neutrosophy. In Smarandache, F. (Ed.) Proceedings of the First International Conference on Neutrosophy, Neutrosophic Logic, Set, Probability and Statistics, pp. 139-146. University of New Mexico. Gallup, NM. Xiquan.
• González, P. P., M. Cárdenas, C. Gershenson, and J. Lagúnez-Otero (2001). Integration of Computational Techniques for the Modelling of Signal Transduction. In N. E. Mastorakis and L. A. Pecorelli-Peres (Eds.) Advances in Systems Science: Measurement, Circuits and Control. WSES Press.
• González, P. P., C. Gershenson, M. Cárdenas, and J. Lagunez.(2000) Modelling intracellular signalling networks using behaviour-based systems and the blackboard architecture, Proceedings of the International Conference: Mathematics and Computers in Biology and Chemistry (MCBC 2000), Montego Bay, Jamaica.
• Gershenson, C. and P. P. González, (2000). Dynamic Adjustment of the Motivation Degree in an Action Selection Mechanism . Proceedings of ISA '2000. Wollongong, Australia.
• Gershenson, C., P. P. González, and J. Negrete. (2000) Thinking Adaptive: Towards a Behaviours Virtual Laboratory. In Meyer et. al. (eds.) SAB 2000 Proceedings Supplement. Paris, France. ISAB press.
• Gershenson, C., P. P. González, and J. Negrete. (2000) Action Selection Properties in a Software Simulated Agent, in Cairó et. al. (Eds.) MICAI 2000: Advances in Artificial Intelligence. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 1793, pp. 634-648. Springer-Verlag.
• González, P. P., J. Negrete, A. Barreiro and C. Gershenson.(2000) A Model for Combination of External and Internal Stimuli in the Action Selection of an Autonomous Agent, in Cairó et. al. (Eds.) MICAI 2000: Advances in Artificial Intelligence. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 1793, pp. 621-633. Springer-Verlag.
• Gershenson, C. (1999) Modelling Emotions with Multidimensional Logic. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society (NAFIPS '99), pp. 42-46. New York City, NY. IEEE Press.
• Gershenson, C. (1998). Lógica multidimensional: un modelo de lógica paraconsistente. Memorias XI Congreso Nacional ANIEI, pp. 132-141. Xalapa, México.
• Gershenson, C. (1998). Control de Tráfico con Agentes: CRASH. Memorias XI Congreso Nacional ANIEI. Xalapa, México.
• Gershenson, C. (1997). El Juego de la Vida en 3D. Memorias X Congreso Nacional ANIEI. Monterrey, México.
• Gershenson, C. (1997). Aplicaciones de la Topología. Memorias X Congreso Nacional ANIEI. Monterrey, México.

In La Jornada (Mexican national newspaper, scientific divulgation)

• “Sistemas Auto-organizantes” (Self-organizing systems). 21/apr/08.
• “Vida Artificial” (Artificial Life). 3/apr/08.
• “Porqué las Máquinas No Conquistarán al Mundo” (Why Machines Will Not Take Over the World). 24/sep/03.
• “Sistemas Complejos” (Complex Systems). 11/dec/00.
• “Manipulando la Evolución” (Manipulating Evolution). 15/nov/99
• “Emergencia y Evolución” (Emergence and Evolution). 25/oct/99
• “Inteligencia Artificial e Inteligencia Natural” (Artificial Intelligence and Natural Intelligence). 14/jun/99
• “Tecnología y desempleo” (Technology and unemployment). nov/9/98
• “Las farmacéuticas y la genética” (Pharmaceutics and genetics), in colaboration with Jaime Lagunez. 25/may/98
• “Pros y contras de la clonación humana” (Pros and cons of human cloning). mar/9/98
• “Nuestro futuro genético y la medicina” (Our genetic future and medicine). feb/2/98

In local journals

• “Paradigmas para Diseñar e Implementar Sistemas Complejos” (Paradigms for Designing and Implementing Complex Systems). InterFAR 1(8), April 2003
• “Medieval”. Gaceta de Becarios de Telmex, August, 1997

Translations

• Morin, E. (2007). Restricted Complexity, General Complexity (Translated from French by C. Gershenson). In Gershenson, C., D. Aerts, and B. Edmonds (Eds.). Worldviews, Science and Us: Philosophy and Complexity. World Scientific.

Conferences, Presentations and Talks

• “Enfrentando a la complejidad: Predecir vs. Adaptar” Invited talk. 1st International Congress on Applied Mathematics. Toluca, México, 2009/11/05.
• “Self-organizing urban transportation systems” Invited keynote talk. Conference Complexity Theories of Cities have come of Age. Delft, The Netherlands, 2009/09/25.
• “Self-organizing urban transportation systems” Seminar at the European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk, The Netherlands. 2009/09/24.
• “Self-organizing urban transportation systems” Seminar at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, 2009/09/22.
• “Self-organizing urban transportation systems” Seminar at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest, Hungary. 2009/09/17.
• “Modeling self-organizing traffic lights with elementary cellular automata” (with David Rosenblueth), “Prediction vs. Adaptation in Science”, & “The Synthetic Production of Antibiotic by Protocells” (with Gabriela Michel and Rodrigo Poblanno-Balp). Posters presented at the European Conference on Artificial Life. Budapest, Hungary,  2009/09/13-16.
• “Enfrentando a la complejidad: Predecir vs. Adaptar” Invited seminar at the ITESM, Querétaro, México. 2009/09/7.
• “The Sigma Profile A Formal Tool to Study Organization and its Evolution at Multiple Scales” Seminar given at the Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad, UNAM. 2009/04/22.
• “Design and Control of Self-organizing Systems” Seminar given at the Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México. 2009/04/03.
• “Enfrentando la complejidad: Predecir vs. Adaptar” Invited talks. Un ésser viu anomenat llenguatge. Complexitat i paraula. CosmoCaixa-Museo de la Ciencia, Lleida, Spain. 2009/03/03. Barcelona, Spain. 2009/03/04. Tarragona, Spain. 2009/03/05.
• “Semáforos auto-organizantes” Invited talk. 1er Congreso Complejidad, Ciencia y Sociedad: Nuevas agendas para la reflexión y la investigación. Cocoyoc, Morelos, México. 2009/02/23.
• “Predictability vs. Adaptability” Invited keynote talk. International Symposium on Complex Systems Engineering. Morelia, Michoacán, México. 2008/10/30-31.
• “An Introduction to Self-organizing Systems” Invited talk given at Lakeside Research Days, Klagenfurt, Austria, June 30^th, 2008.
• “Design and Control of Self-organizing Systems” Talk given at Greythumb, Cambridge, MA, USA. April 7^th, 2008.
• “Self-Organizing Traffic Lights” Lecture given at the NECSI Winter School, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA. Jaunuary 17^th, 2008.
• “The World as Evolving Information” Talk given at the 7^th International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS). Boston, MA, USA. October 31^st, 2007.
• “Self-Organizing Traffic Lights” Seminar given at New England Complex Systems Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA. June 29^th, 2007.
• “Self-Organizing Traffic Lights” Invited seminar given at EPHS, Sorbonne, Paris, France. February 2^nd, 2007.
• “Towards Self-organizing Bureaucracies” Seminar given to the Evolution, Complexity, and Cognition group, VUB, Brussels, Belgium. January 10^th, 2007.
• “Self-organizing traffic lights: A realistic simulation of the Wetstraat” Presentation given (with Seung Bae Cools) at the cabinet of the Minister of Mobility and Public Works, Pascal Smet. Brussels, Belgium. December 5^th, 2006.
• “A General Methodology for Designing Self-Organizing Systems” Seminar given at IRIDIA, ULB, Brussels, Belgium. October 27^th, 2006.
• “Future Directions in Artificial Life” Invited panelist at round table discussion at the ALife X conference. Bloomington, IN, USA, June 7^th, 2006.
• “The Role of Redundancy in the Robustness of Random Boolean Networks” Poster presented at the ALife X conference. Bloomington, IN, USA, June 6^th, 2006.
• “A General Methodology for Designing Self-Organizing Systems” Talk given at Redfish Group. Santa Fe, NM, USA, May 31^st, 2006.
• “A General Methodology for Designing Self-Organizing Systems” Seminar given at the Kansai Advanced Research Center. Kobe, Japan, April 13^th, 2006.
• “Self-Organizing Traffic Lights” Seminar given At Tokyo University, Japan, April 6^th, 2006.
• “A General Methodology for Designing Self-Organizing Systems” Invited talk at CSS’05. Liverpool, UK. September 14^th, 2005.
• “Introduction to Random Boolean Networks” Tutorial given (with Andy Wuensche) at the ECAL conference. Canterbury, UK. September 5^th, 2005.
• “Self-organizing traffic lights: An alternative for Brussels” Presentation given at the cabinet of the Minister of Mobility and Public Works, Pascal Smet. Brussels, Belgium. August 24^th, 2005.
• “A General Methodology for Designing Self-Organizing Systems” Seminar given to the Evolution, Complexity, and Cognition group, VUB, Brussels, Belgium. June 17^th, 2005.
• “Self-Organizing Traffic Lights” Seminar given to the Evolution, Complexity, and Cognition group, VUB, Brussels, Belgium. January 28^th, 2005.
• “Self-Organizing Traffic Lights” Poster presented at the 1^st European Conference on Complex Systems. Torino, Italy, December 5^th-7^th, 2004; and at the Nonlinearity, Fluctuations, and Complexity Conference. ULB, Brussels, Belgium, March 16^th-19^th, 2005
• “Protocol Requirements for Self-organizing Artifacts: Towards an Ambient Intelligence” and “Self-organizing Traffic Lights”. Double seminar given to the VUB AILab, Brussels, Belgium. November 26^th, 2004.
• “Updating Schemes in Random Boolean Networks: Do They Really Matter?” Poster presented at the ALife IX conference. Boston, MA, September 14^th, 2004.
• “Introduction to Random Boolean Networks” Tutorial given (with Andy Wuensche) at the ALife IX conference. Boston, MA, September 12^th, 2004.
• “Imitation Promotes Cooperation” Talk given at the Social Connectionism Meeting. Genval, Belgium. June 17^th, 2004.
• “Protocol Requirements for Self-organizing Artifacts: Towards an Ambient Intelligence” Talk given at the 5^th International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS). Boston, MA. May 20^th, 2004.
• “Phase Transitions in Random Boolean Networks with Different Updating Schemes”. Talk given at the Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics Days. Université Libre de Bruxelles. April 27^th, 2004
• “Updating Schemes in Random Boolean Networks”, “C. S. Lewis’ “The Four Loves” as a Metaphor for Evolution”, and “Topologies and Dynamics of Sexual Networks”. Talks given at the Rule 110 Winterworkshop, Haus Neuland, Bielefeld, Germany. March 6^th - 13^th, 2004.
• “When Can we Call a System Self-organizing?” Seminar given at IRIDIA, ULB, Brussels, Belgium. October 6^th, 2003.
• “Contextual Random Boolean Networks” Talk given at ECAL 2003, Dortmund, Germany. September 16^th, 2003.
• “When Can we Call a System Self-organizing?” Poster presented at ECAL 2003, Dortmund, Germany. September 16^th, 2003.
• “Contextual Random Boolean Networks” Talk given at the Centrum Leo Apostel, VUB, Brussels, Belgium. September 2^nd, 2003.
• “When Can we Call a System Self-organizing?” Talk given at the Centrum Leo Apostel, VUB, Brussels, Belgium. March 11^th, 2003.
• “Classification of Random Boolean Networks” Talk given at the ALife VIII conference. UNSW, Syndey, Australia. December 11^th, 2002.
• “Comparing Cognitive Paradigms: Which one is the best?” Seminar given at the VUB AILab, Brussels, Belgium.. November 22^nd, 2002.
• “Comparing Cognitive Paradigms: Which one is the best?” Talk given to the ALERGIC group. University of Sussex. October 23^rd, 2002.
• “Behaviour-based Knowledge Systems: An Epigenetic Path from Behaviour to Knowledge”. Talk given at the Second International Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics. Edinburgh, Scotland. August 10^th, 2002.
• “KEBA Virtual Laboratory”. Demo given at From Animals to Animats: The Seventh International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior. Edinburgh, Scotland. August 7^th, 2002.
• “So... What is Cognition?”. Poster presented at Sussex University. July 10^th, 2002.
• “On the Subjectivity of Cognition”. Talk given at the Workshop on Distributed Cognition. Center Leo Apostel. Free University of Brussels. July 6^th, 2002.
• “Complex Philosophy”, “A Study on the Relevance of Information in Discriminative and Non-Discriminative Media”, “Neural Net Model for Featured Word Extraction”, and “Transforming the World Wide Web into a Complexity-Based Semantic Network”. Posters presented at the 4th International Conference on Complex Systems. Nashua, NH, June 10^th, 2002.
• “Knowledge Emerging from Behaviour”. Talk given to the Cognitive Sciences Group, Lund University, Sweden. May 8^th, 2002.
• “Contextuality: A Philosophical Paradigm”. Talk given the E-Intentionality group. University of Sussex. March 1^st, 2002.
• “Classification of Random Boolean Networks”. Talk given to the ALERGIC group. University of Sussex. February 19^th, 2002.
• “Complex Philosophy”. Talk given to the LOINAS group. University of Sussex. December, 2001.
• “Artificial Societies of Intelligent Agents” BEng Thesis Defense, approved with honours. March 3^rd, 2001, Fundación Arturo Rosenblueth, México.
• “Un laboratorie comportemental virtuel”. Demo presented in From Animals to Animats: the Sixth International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior. September 14^th, 2000. Paris, France.
• “Thinking Adaptive: Towards a Behaviours Virtual Laboratory”. Poster presented in From Animals to Animats: the Sixth International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior. September 11^th, 2000. Paris, France.
• “Action Selection and Weak Social Action” in the 3rd International Conference of Complex Systems (ICCS3), poster presented May 21^th, 2000, Nashua, NH.
• “Action Selection Properties in a Software Simulated Agent” Talk given at the 1^st Mexican International Conference of Artificial Intelligence (MICAI 2000). April 13^th, 2000, Acapulco, México.
• “A Model for Combination of External and Internal Stimuli in the Action Selection of an Autonomous Agent” Talk given at the 1^st Mexican International Conference of Artificial Intelligence (MICAI 2000). April 13^th, 2000, Acapulco, México.
• “Manipulating Evolution” Invited talk at the 8va Semana de Biología Experimental, UAM Iztapalapa, México. October 27^th, 1999.
• “Modelling Emotions with Multidimensional Logic”. Talk given at the 18th International Conference of the North American Fuzzy Information Process Society – NAFIPS '99, New York City, NY. June 10^th, 1999.
• “Towards a Revolution in Science and Philosophy”, Invited talk at the XI Semana Académica de la UAQ, Querétaro, México. March 16^th, 1999.
• “Modelling Emotions with Multidimensional Logic”, Invited talk at the XI Semana Académica de la UAQ, Querétaro, México. March 16^th, 1999.
• “Multidimensional Logic: a model of paraconsistent logic”. Talk at the XI Congreso Nacional de la ANIEI (Asociación Nacional de Instituciones de Enseñanza en Informática) sobre Informática y Computación. Xalapa, Mexico. October 8^th, 1998.
• “Traffic Control with Agents: CRASH”. Talk at the XI Congreso Nacional de la ANIEI sobre Informática y Computación. Xalapa, Mexico. October 8^th, 1998.
• “Topology Applications”. Talk at the X Congreso Nacional de la ANIEI sobre Informática y Computación, Monterrey, México. October 9^th, 1997.
• “Game of Life in 3D”. Talk at the X Congreso Nacional de la ANIEI sobre Informática y Computación, Monterrey, México. October 8^th, 1997.

Scientific Software Developed

The programs and their source code are available at the listed webpages.

• RAN: Random Agent Networks: A simple simulation for illustrating the benefits of self-organization in social organizations. Java. 2005.

• http://rans.sourceforge.net/

• SOTL: Self-organizing Traffic Lights. Multi-agent traffic simulation of a simple regular city. NetLogo. 2004-2005.

• http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~cgershen/sos/#sotl

• RBNLab: A software laboratory for studying the properties of different types of random Boolean networks. Java. 2001-2005.

• http://rbn.sourceforge.net/

• SOTraCon: Self-organizing Traffic Control. Virtual Laboratory. Java 3D. 2003.

• http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~cgershen/sos/#sotracon

• KEB: A virtual laboratory for comparing different types of cognitive architectures. Java 3D. 2001-2002.

• http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~cgershen/cogs/keb/

• ASIA: A behavioural virtual laboratory used for studying Artificial Societies of Intelligent Agents. Java and VRML. 1999-2001.

• http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~cgershen/jlagunez/asia/bvl/

• CRASH: Car and Road Automated Simulation in Hyperways. Agent-based traffic simulation where cars do not stop at crossings. C++. 1998.

• http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~cgershen/jlagunez/crash/

Media & Popular Science Coverage

• Update on the undead from science's bat-cave, Sunday Star Times (New Zealand), Susan Pepperell, 2009/11/22. http://tinyurl.com/yz8votj
• Weekly PLoS ONE News and Blog Round-Up, Bex Walton. 2009/11/06. http://tinyurl.com/yla7ofe
• Modelo matemático para evitar los retrasos en transporte, Matematicalia, 2009/10/30. http://tinyurl.com/yzfkgj3
• Transforming Transportation. Frontier Economy, 2009/10/30. http://tinyurl.com/ylccsg2
• Interview in BBC Radio World Service's Newshour with Owen Bennett Jones. 2009/10/30
• Why three buses come at once, and how to avoid it. 29 October 2009, Debora MacKenzie, 
New Scientist, 2009/10/29. http://tinyurl.com/yzuf7r2

• L'hegemonia de la física clàsica s'està desmuntant, R. Ríos, Segre, 2009/03/04.

• Interview with Mariví Chacón for Cafeïna, Lleida Televisió, 2009/03/03.

• Autonomous Agents Take On City Driving, Mark Ingebretsen, "In the News," IEEE Intelligent Systems 23(6):4-7, Nov/Dec, 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MIS.2008.104
  
• Crash. Efecto Mariposa. Interview for Radio Uruguay. 2008/07/28.
  
• Slimme lichten' tegen fileleed. De Morgen. 2008/06/16. http://tinyurl.com/4xgtcf
  
• Slimme lichten op elk Vlaams kruispunt. Vrije Universiteit Brussel 2007 Jaarverslag, p. 29
  
• Slimme verkeerslichten. Knack. 2007/05/23, p. 63
  
• Minder files door zelf-regulerende verkeers-lichten. Blik op Nieuws. http://tinyurl.com/yvxjzg
  
• Sneller door de Wetstraat. De Standaard (ed. Vlaams-Brabant/Brussel). 2007/05/12, p. 21 http://tinyurl.com/29btgz
• Sneller door Wetstraat met blokrijden. Het Volk (ed. Vlaams-Brabant). 2007/05/12, p. 28
• Sneller door Wetstraat met blokrijden. Het Nieuwsblad (ed. Brussel-Noordrand). 2007/05/12, p. 27 http://tinyurl.com/289qy7
• Sneller door Wetstraat met blokrijden. De Gentenaar. 2007/05/12. http://tinyurl.com/yvs6nk
  
• Intelligente lichten kunnan files inkorten. Brussel Deze Week. 2007/05/10, p. 5
• Dynamische verkeedrslichten. De Weekkrant (ed. Westhoek). 2007/05/10, p. 4
  
• Zelfregulerende verkeerslichten kunnen het fileprobleem verminderen. Elektronische Nieuwsbrief VUB. 2007/05/07. http://tinyurl.com/yrlqkm
  
• Feux autorégulés.  L'Echo. 2007/05/05, p. 16
  
• Slimme lichten op elk Vlaams kruispunt. Gazet van Antwerpen. 2007/05/04, p.9. http://tinyurl.com/ywmpx5
  
• Minder files dankzij slimme verkeerslichten. De Morgen. 2007/05/04, p.3. http://tinyurl.com/ywmpx5
  
• Gewest test zelfregulerende verkeerslichten. Brussel Nieuws (Brussel Deze Week, TV Brussel, FM Brussel). 2007/05/04. http://tinyurl.com/23cxw4
  
• Slimme verkeerslichten houden dichtslibbende wegen open. Metro. 2007/05/04, p. 3
• Slim verkeerslicht. Het Financieele Dagblad. 2007/05/04, p. 3
• VUB-docent heeft oplossing voor files in Wetstraat. Het Laatste Niewus. 2007/05/04, p. 13
• Minder files bij 'zelfregulerende' lichten. De Tijd. 2007/05/04, p. 40
• 'Slimme' verkeerslichten kunnen files verminderen. Nieuwsblad.be 2007/05/04
• Zelfreguerende verkeerslichten kunnen files verminderen. Belga. 2007/05/03, p. 468
• Améliorer la fluiditeé du trafic par des feux auto-régulés (étude). Belga. 2007/05/03, p. 175
• Zelfregulerende verkeerslichten kunnen files verminderen. Telegraaf.nl 2007/05/03

• 'Slimme' verkeerslichten kunnen files verminderen. De Standaard. 2007/05/03. http://tinyurl.com/2zpr67
  

• 'Slimme' verkeerslichten kunnen files verminderen. HetVolk.be. 2007/05/03. http://tinyurl.com/yuetnk
  

• Zelfregulerend verkeerslicht drukt wachttijd. Kennislink.nl. 2007/05/03. http://tinyurl.com/2s5576
  

• Traffic light intelligence. In Complexity at Large. Complexity 12(4):6, 2007/03/14.

• 'Smart' Traffic Lights Sense Congestion. Anna Salleh. Discovery News. 2006/11/02. http://tinyurl.com/3xkpfh

• Le peuple des connecteurs. Thierry Crouzet. Bourin Editor, 2006. http://tinyurl.com/fo5pq

• Self-organizing systems design. In Complexity at Large. Complexity 11(1):4, 2005/10/18.

• Les feux de croisement sont capables de s'autogérer. Science & Vie 1049, Février 2005, p. 32

• Adaptive lights organize traffic. ACM TechNews 7(747), 2005/01/28. http://tinyurl.com/yt6bne

• Adaptive lights organize traffic. Kimberly Patch, Technology Research News. 2005/01/26. http://tinyurl.com/ghcsm

• Matemáticas antes de cruzar. Página 12. 2005/01/07. http://tinyurl.com/y8cby7

• Zet zelf het lich op groen. De Tijd 2004/12/13, p. 17.

• Alle macht aan de verkeerslichten. Trends.be. 2004/12/09. http://tinyurl.com/z7xbr

• Grüne Welle auf Verlangen. Bayerischer Rundfunk 2004/12/08. http://tinyurl.com/g6ma9

• Ampel Je nach Verkehr von Rot auf Grün. Wienweb.at 2004/12/07. http://tinyurl.com/tlnt2

• Perfekte Ampelschaltung. Berliner Morgenpost 2004/12/07. http://tinyurl.com/sfhxc

• Beating the lights. Philip Ball, News @ Nature 2004/12/03. http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041129/full/news041129-12.html

• Rules aim to get devices talking. Eric Smalley, Technology Research News. 2004/06/02. http://tinyurl.com/jtkrw

Collaborators

Biology: Stuart A. Kauffman, Jaime Lagunez-Otero, Tom Lenaerts, Gabriela Michel, Ilya Shmulevich, Andrew Wuensche

Computer Science: Johan Bollen, Seung-Bae Cools, Carlos-Rubén de la Mora-Basañez, Angélica García-Vega, Pedro-Pablo González-Pérez, José Negrete-Martínez, Luis A. Pineda, Rodrigo Poblanno-Balp, Marko A. Rodriguez, David Rosenblueth, Daniel J. Steinbock, Jennifer H. Watkins

Philosophy: Paul Cilliers, Bruce Edmonds

Physics: Diederik Aerts, Yaneer Bar-Yam, Jan Broeckaert, Atin Das, Bart D'Hooghe, Francis Heylighen, Gottfried Mayer-Kress, Mason A. Porter

Mentors

Javier Fernández-Pacheco, Jaime Lagunez-Otero, Pedro-Pablo González-Pérez, José Negrete-Martínez, José-Luis Mateos, Inman R. Harvey, Ezequiel A. Di Paolo, Andy Clark, Chris Thornton, Francis Heylighen, Diederik Aerts, Julián-José Merelo-Guervós, Yaneer Bar-Yam.

Students

• Rodrigo Poblanno-Balp «Coupled Random Boolean Networks and their Criticality». MSc in  Computer Science and Engineering, UNAM. 2009-2010.

• Seung Bae Cools. «A realistic simulation for self-organizing traffic lights». BSc in Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussel. 2005-2006.

Thesis Committee

• Igor Lugo Olmos. PhD in Economy, UNAM. 2009.

• Miriam Patricia Cienfuentes. «Modelo de sistema complejo del fenómeno de la salud: más allá de los determinantes de la salud». PhD in Public Health, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. 2008.

Awards

• CONACyT Repatriation Support (2009).
  

• FWO postdoctoral fellowship (2007-2010).
  

• CONACyT scholarship for graduate studies, Mexico (2001-2006)

• Fundación Telmex scholarship, Mexico (1996-2001).

• Karyn Kupcinet International Summer School, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel (1999)

• SEP scholarship, Mexico (1989-1991).

Remarks

• 1^st place at the prototypes contest of the EXPO ESCOM 98, with CRASH (Car and Road Automated Simulation in Hyperways).

• 2^nd place at the 3^rd (Mexican) Informatics Olympiad (1998).

• Zone finalist in: Ruta Hidalgo (6^th grade), (Mexican) Mathemathics Olympiad (9^th and 12^th grades), and (Mexican) Chemistry Olympiad (11^th grade).

• Participant in 9 (Mexican) National Swimming Championships (1993-1997) and finalist in 3 of them.

• Collaborator in the book “Los Derechos Humanos Para Niños” (Human Rights for children). ISBN 968-7456-34-5.

• Author of the novels: “Nacidos para morir” (Born to die) registered at the Dirección General de Derechos de Autor (Num. of reg. 116171), and “Nacidos para morir, segunda parte” (Born to die, part 2)(Num. of reg. 147352).

• Author of “Cuentos” (Tales). (Num. of reg. 147351)

Skills

• Languages: Native: Spanish, Fluent: English, Conversational: Russian, French, Dutch. Reading: Portuguese, Italian.

• Sciences: mathematics, physics, electronics, systems theory, evolution theory, complexity theory.

• Computing Sciences: structured, object-oriented, and agent-oriented programming, structured, object-oriented, and agent-oriented analysis and design, data structures, file organization, data bases, compilers, operating systems.

• Programming languages: Java, Pascal, Delphi, C, C++, Smalltalk, LISP, Prolog, APL, J, NetLogo.

• Operating Systems: Linux, Irix, Solaris, MacOS, OpenStep, Windows, DOS.

• Various: UML, Rational Rose, Mathematica, Matlab, Derive, HTML, VRML, Java3D, SQL, Informix, Tuxedo, R.

• Artificial intelligence: Behaviour-based systems, knowledge-based systems, evolutionary and adaptive systems, expert systems, artificial neural networks, knowledge representation, multi-agent systems, artificial societies.

• Philosophy: Logics, ontology, aesthetics, ethics, epistemology.

• Art: drawing, painting, photography, digital, poetry and prose.

Professional References

Dr. Stuart A. Kauffman

skauffman@ucalgary.ca +1 (403) 220-8349

Director, The Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics

The University of Calgary. Calgary, AB. T2N 1N4 Canada

Mark A. Bedau

mab@reed.edu +39 041 2346931

Professor of Philosophy and Humanities, Reed College

Adjunct Professor of Systems Science, Portland State University

Editor-in-Chief, Artificial Life

3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. Portland OR 97202-8199, USA

Dr. Inman R. Harvey

inmanh@sussex.ac.uk +44 1273 678431

Senior Lecturer in CS and AI, Department of Informatics, University of Sussex

Brighton BN1 9QH, United Kingdom

Dr. Ezequiel A. Di Paolo

ezequiel@sussex.ac.uk +44 1273 877763

Senior Lecturer in Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems

Department of Informatics, University of Sussex

Brighton, BN1 9QH, United Kingdom

Prof. Dr. Francis Heylighen

fheyligh@vub.ac.be +32 2 640 67 37

Director. Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group

Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Krijgskundestraat 33, B-1160 Brussel – Belgium

Dr. José Negrete-Martínez

jnegrete@uv.mx +52 288 817 2957

Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial. Facultad de Física e Inteligencia Artificial

Universidad Veracruzana

Departamento de Biología Celular y Fisiología. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas. UNAM. Unidad Periférica en Xalapa. Veracruz. México.

Calle Sebastián Camacho #5, Xalapa Centro. CP 91000.Veracruz. México.