Speakers

  • Rien van de Waijgaert, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen

    N/A

  • Hector Zenil, Karolinska Institute/University of Paris/Oxford University

    Hector Zenil has a PhD in Theoretical Computer Science and is soon defending a second PhD in Philosophy of Science at the University of Paris. He has been a senior research associate for Wolfram Research and a visiting scholar at MIT, Carnegie Mellon and the National University of Singapore. He is also a research lab member at Karolinska Institute, PI and fellow at the University of Oxford and at the Algorithmic Nature Group, LABORES in Paris. He was a research fellow at the Behavioural and Evolutionary Theory Lab at the University of Sheffield in the UK. His current research involves the introduction of concepts and tools from (algorithmic) information theory to genetics and molecular biology, in particular structural and network biology. He is the editor of A Computable Universe: Understanding and Exploring Nature as Computation, with a foreword by Sir Roger Penrose, among other volumes; and author of about 50 journal papers and books chapters.

  • Fred Daum, Raytheon, USA

    N/A

  • Brett Bochner, Hofstra University, USA

    Currently serving as a full professor at Hofstra University in New York, the focus of my research has been on how information flow and causality affect the "big questions" in cosmology -- from the initial period of cosmic homogenization and "Friedmannization", to the more recent epoch of the mysterious acceleration. I received my B.S in Physics from Caltech in 1987, and my Ph.D. in Gravitational Astrophysics (LIGO) from MIT in 1998. I worked on the faculty on the University of Pennsylvania after graduation, before accepting my tenured position at Hofstra University.

  • Kim Wende, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium

    Kim Wende currently holds a position as a post-doctoral fellow in the interdisciplinary research project 'Causality and Free Will Institute of Neuroscience' IoNS/ Higher Institute of Philosophy ISP, UC Louvain, Belgium.
    Reasearch Background: PD in natural science (section brain imaging, Phillips-Univ. Marburg, Germany). Her research topics of interest include causality, perception, language, inference, reasoning, brain-mind-problems.

  • Tom Sterkenburg, CWI/University of Groningen, Netherlands

    Tom Sterkenburg holds a MSc in Logic (University of Amsterdam), a MSc in History and Philosophy of Science (University of Utrecht) and a MA in Philosophy (University of Groningen). Currently, he is a PhD student at both the Centrum Wiskunde and Informatica (the national research institute for mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands) in Amsterdam and the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Groningen. His project is on the foundations of information-theoretic statistics, with a focus on algorithmic information theory.

  • Frans van Lunteren, Leiden Observatory, Netherlands

    Frans van Lunteren studied physics at Utrecht University. He now holds chairs in the history of science at both Leiden University and the VU University of Amsterdam.

  • Ahmet Koltuksuz, Yasar University, Turkey

    Dr. Koltuksuz was born in 1961. He earned his Ph.D. from Computer Engineering Department of Aegean University with a dissertation thesis titled 'Cryptoanalytical Measures of Turkey Turkish for Symmetrical Cryptosystems' in 1995. He moved to Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Computer Engineering in 1996. Dr. Koltuksuz had established and runs the Information Systems Strategy and Security Laboratory (IS3 Lab) in Iztech. He joined the department of Computer Engineering at the College of Engineering of Yasar University in September 2009 and is now the head of the department of Computer Engineering. He has organized a local joint conference with Astrophysics Department of Aegean University titled: 'Black Holes: A New Perpective on Information and Storage' and has been working on information theory, manifolds and Planck scale simulations. His research interests include Information Theory, Theory of Computation, Operating Systems, Theory of Numbers, Cyberspace Defense & Security.

  • Petr Jizba, Czech Technical University, Czech Republic

    Dr Petr Jizba is Associated Professor of Physics at Czech Technical University, in Prague in Czech Republic. He holds a Ph.D in theoretical physics from Cambridge University (DAMTP), UK. He spends extensive periods of times at Tsukuba University, Japan, and Freie Universitaet in Berlin.

  • Jonathan Braden, University College London, UK

    Jonathan Braden is currently a postdoctoral research associate with Hiranya Peiris in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London. He completed his PhD at the University of Toronto / CITA under the supervision of Dick Bond (and formerly Lev Kofman). His research centres broadly on the physics of the very early universe, with a particular focus on the dynamics of phase transitions, the end of inflation and initial conditions for inflation. In addition to cosmology, his work overlaps with research in nonequilibrium quantum field theory and information theory. He is also interested in the use of high performance computing in fundamental theory, including the development of novel numerical algorithms for simulations of nonequilibrium field theories.

  • Wolfgang Johannsen, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Germany

    Ph.D. (dr. phil. nat.) at Frankfurt /Main University 1990 in computer science / information systems. Wolfgang has been involved in research at IBM (Diestributed Systems), Heidelberg, various management positions in banking and consulting (1993 - 2004) and lecturing at various institutions ("Frankburt School, Univ. of Applied Science Darmstadt, Technical University of Darmstadt, CNAM Strasbourg). He is an author of a book on Information Governance (2nd edition 2010), dpunkt Verlag, Heidelberg and Information (co- authored by R. Englert) , Cuvillier 2012. He has also contributed to the Semantic Information in Nature to appear in Information 2015, 6, 1-x; doi:10.3390 (www.mdpi.com/journal/information)

  • Arzu Tugce Guler, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands

    PhD candidate at Leiden University Medical Center. Background is on computer science and bioinformatics. Obtained her bachelor's degree from Department of Computer Engineering at TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara, Turkey. Always been interested in life sciences and information technologies, did a master's in Bioinformatics at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Shortly after starting an advanced master's in Artificial Intelligence at the same university, moved to the Netherlands to start her PhD studies at Leiden University Medical Center where she is doing her research on developing intelligent workflows for analysis of mass spectrometry data.

  • Marco Spaans, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Netherlands

    Marco Spaans obtained his PhD from Leiden University (Cum Laude). He has worked at the Johns Hopkins University and at Harvard University before becoming a full professor at the University of Groningen. In his theoretical work he studies black holes, wormholes and space-time topology, active galaxies, dark energy, and astrobiology.

  • Cagatay Yucel, Yasar University, Turkey

    Cagatay Yucel is a Ph.D. candidate and a Research Assistant at Yasar University. Yucel received his undergraduate Computer Engineering degree from Izmir Institute of Technology in 2009 and earned his M.S. degree in Engineering from Yasar University in 2012, with a thesis entitled 'Software Development for Transitions of Graphs from Discrete State into Continuous State'. His research interests are Information Theory, Multidimensional Information Processing and Visualization, Computer Forensics, Operating Systems, and Parallel Programming.

  • Alexei Melkikh , Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia

    I am a professor of physics at the Ural Federal University (Yekaterinburg, Russia). My research interests are: evolution theory, artificial intelligence, quantum mechanics, games theory, biophysics and statistical physics.

  • Fabiana da Pieve, LSI, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, France

    I am a Marie Curie Fellowship in the Laboratoire des Solides Irradiés, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau (France) and I work in a group studying the many body physics of interesting materials via theoretical spectroscopy. Simultaneously to my main activity, I carry on my research on problems related to chirality, the origin of homochirality in the biological world but also chiral properties in minerals. My very early steps in science, in Italy, were about the very fascinating problem of the entanglement, in my case the entanglement between two simultaneously emitted electrons in atomic decays. I have then moved to solid state physics, moving to France and to Belgium, again studying autoionization decays and also other spectroscopic responses, with state-of-the-art methods in theoretical spectroscopy. I find great motivation in applying my knowledge in solid state physics to interdisciplinary problems.

  • Jürgen Riedel, LABORES, France

    Jürgen Riedel holds a PhD degree in Theoretical Physics from the Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany. Since the mid 1990's he started a career as a software developer, business analyst, and IT trainer, which led him to work in Europe as well as the Americas. He is currently in the Algorithmic Nature Group, LABORES in Paris, France. His research interests are classical field theory, non-topological solitons, and black holes. Jürgen is fascinated with the idea of emergence and how complexity arises from simple rules and constrains. He seeks to learn more about this fascinating topic.

  • Jesus Dehesa, Granada University, Spain

    Jesus S. Dehesa is a full profesor in Physics at the Granada University in Spain. His present research interests are information theory, complexity and quantum entanglement, and their applications in atomic and molecular systems, chemical processes and special functions of applied mathematics. He received his B.S. in Physics from Madrid University, and a PhD. in Nuclear Physics from Bonn University. Professor Dehesa has worked in the Institute of Theoretical Nuclear Physics of Orsay (Paris) and KFA Jülich, Germany.

  • Jos Roerdink, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

    See Jos Roerdink personal webpage for more