LEADERSHIP
Olaf Witkowski, PhD
Director
CONTACTOlaf co-founded ventures in science and technology on three continents. Expert in machine intelligence, cognitive science, and artificial life, he has conducted research at the University of Tokyo, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He was elected Vice President of the International Society for Artificial Life and co-founded Artificial Life Japan in 2021. He leads research activities at Cross Labs, and is an Executive Officer at Cross Compass.
Alyssa Adams, PhD
Deputy Director
CONTACTAlyssa's goal is to develop a new understanding of living systems – one that embraces the subjectivity of emergent observers and new, unexpected functionality – so that we might see intelligence, evolution, and emergence through the same lens.
Antoine Pasquali, PhD
Innovation Advisor
CONTACTDoctor of cognitive neuroscience and an expert in engineering and automatic control sciences, Antoine has 20 years of experience in deep learning in developmental and industrial robotics, manufacturing, food industry, finance, psychophysics and brain imaging. He currently leads the development of technological innovations at Cross Compass as Board Director and Chief Technology Officer.
Katsunobu Suzuki
Corporate Strategy Lead
CONTACTKatsunobu brings his unique experience in the development of semiconductor chips for industrial applications, having been the first to introduce AI into factory edge devices in Japan with NEC (now Renesas Electronics). Katsunobu graduated from Yokohama City University. As Chief Executive Officer of Cross Compass Ltd., he manages the company's strategy to bridge between cutting-edge research and AI technology at the service of humanity.
STAFF
Jean Alfonso-Decena
Executive Assistant to the Director
Jean co-founded tech startups in Japan and the Philippines and led a Google award-winning conversational AI fintech company in Berkeley, California. Jean is currently an AI consultant for global tech and academic institutions, and the founder of a spirit-tech startup helping humans evolve into radical consciousness.
Steven Weigh
Design Advisor
Passionate about human-machine interaction, and how design and emerging technology might improve the quality of life for all, Steven is currently leading a talented team creatives in designing Toyota's next generation of ADAS technologies.
RESEARCHERS
Martin Biehl, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Martin's expertise is in Bayesian agents and information theory, focusing on foundations of individuality, goal-directedness and imagination/deliberation inside dynamical systems. He obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Hertfordshire, UK.
Nicholas Guttenberg, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
With a background in computational condensed matter physics and specializing in scaling and the emergence of patterns in complex systems and abstract chemistries with an emphasis on Origins of Life questions, Nicholas is currently developing methods for multi-agent artificial intelligence informed by ideas from physics and complex systems.
Mahdi Khosravy, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Mahdi is an expert in interdisciplinary intelligent systems, with over a hundred books, book chapters, journal publications, presentations, and technical reports. He has established strong international collaborations with universities and the industry in Europe, USA, Brazil, India, and Japan. His recent work revolves around GANs, model inversion attacks, deep face recognition, and evolutionary optimization.
Keisuke Suzuki
Senior Research Scientist
Keisuke's key research focus is conscious presence; i.e. the subjective feeling of being "here and now". His approach builds on state-of-the-art virtual reality to experimentally manipulate the bodily and mental states of mind, which is complimented by theoretical modeling. Keisuke is a specially appointed lecturer at the Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence, and Neuroscience (CHAIN) in Hokkaido University, Japan.
Luc Caspar, PhD
Research Scientist
Luc holds a PhD in Affective Science and Machine Learning from the University of Sheffield were his focus was on emotions and their role in the decision-making process. Since joining Cross Labs, Luc's focus has shifted from understanding affect to using the concept for studying the possibility of communication through games.
Javi Fernandez
Research Scientist
Javier holds a Degree in Industrial Engineering and double Master's Degree from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Keio University. Javier’s current focus is Affective Computing, Artificial Life, and Artificial Intelligence.
Tanner Lund
Research Scientist
Tanner is a doctoral student at The University of Tokyo and a software industry professional of 8+ years. Among his interests are complex heterogeneous multi-agent systems, risk, uncertainty, music, communication, the features of life and artifice, and most fundamentally: learning.
Lisa Soros, PhD
Research Scientist
Lisa's interests span from artificial life to video game AI, and generative design. Lisa's research focuses primarily on theory and application of evolutionary algorithms, specifically focusing on open-ended evolution and open-endedness in general.
Oneris Rico, PhD
Research Assistant
Oneris contributes to Cross Labs research with his expertise in video content production and cinematography. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Keio in media design.
Peter Rood
Research Assistant
Peter holds degrees in philosophy and media studies. He has 10+ years of experience working in the tech industry. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study. He is interested in artificial life, complex systems, and open-endedness.
Benjamin Calvert
Research Assistant
Ben is a PhD student with a background in marine biology. With a deep interest in animal communication, his research focuses on interpreting how animals convey meaning and understanding their perspectives. He aims to quantify these meanings and explore ways to translate them into a form that both machines and humans can interpret, helping bridge the gap between human and animal cognition and fostering new insights into cross-species interaction.
Esin Bahar Akçay
Research Assistant
Esin is a Master’s student in Modeling for Neuronal and Cognitive Systems at Université Côte d'Azur. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Artificial Intelligence from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Her scientific interests revolve around neurocognition, mathematical modeling of large-scale brain dynamics as well as utilizing computational tools to understand intelligence, emotions and consciousness.
EXTERNAL MEMBERS
Nathanael Aubert-Kato, PhD
External Member
Nathanael is a lecturer at the Ochanomizu University, Japan, and received his PhD in Information Sciences and Technology from the University of Tokyo. Nathanael's research interests cover molecular robotics, evolutionary optimization algorithms, and Alife.
Praful Gagrani, PhD
External Member
A postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison in the Origins of Life group, where he also received his Ph.D. in Physics, Praful has a master’s in physics with a specialization in cosmology from Kansas State University. Praful's research focus is on the application of mathematics and mathematical physics towards building specific techniques for understanding various aspects of complex systems.
Eliott Jacopin, PhD
External Member
Eliott holds a Ph.D. in systems biology from Osaka University. He is interested in characterizing living systems and investigates the subject from the angle of both formal frameworks and simulations.
Hector Zenil, PhD
External Member
Hector leads the Algorithmic Dynamics Lab at the Karolinska Institute, and is a Senior Researcher at the Alan Turing Institute at the British Library in London. Hector has published over 120 papers and several books, including "A Computable Universe" and "Algorithmic Information Dynamics."
Kevin Frans
External Member
Kevin's background is in generative modeling and reinforcement learning. Kevin is a member of the Embodied Intelligence group at MIT, and deeply interested in the intersection between modern deep learning and artificial life, such as open-endedness, AI-assisted art, and emergently intelligent agents.
ADVISORS
Prof. Takashi Ikegami
Professor, University of Tokyo
Professor at the Department of General System Studies, at the University of Tokyo Prof. Ikegami’s work encompasses both the arts and sciences, with a focus on complex systems and Artificial Life, a field which aims to build a possible form of life using computer simulations, chemical experiments and robots.
Prof. Mizuki Oka
Associate Professor, University of Tsukuba
Associate Professor at University of Tsukuba. Prof. Oka leads the Japanese Society of Artificial Intelligence and is Technical Advisor of Blank Space Co., Ltd. Specializing in Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Data Analysis and Utilization, Prof. Oka is the author of several books including 'Building and Running ALife – An Introduction to Artificial Life Theory Through Implementation'.
Prof. Daniel Polani
Director, Centre for Computer Science and Informatics Research
Daniel Polani is a professor of Artificial Intelligence and Director of the Centre for Computer Science and Informatics Research, and Head of the Adaptive Systems Research Group, and leader of the SEPIA Lab at the University of Hertfordshire.
Prof. Hiroki Sayama
Director, Center for Collective Dynamics of Complex Systems
Professor at Binghamton University, Hiroki Sayama is a researcher who has an extensive experience in teaching and research on complex systems science and engineering, network science, computational social science, mathematical modeling and simulation, artificial life/chemistry, and computer and information sciences.
ALUMNI
Kaan Akinci
Mercari
Payton Bechefsky
UCLA
Grant Cheng
UCLA
Chris Hoang
NYU
Samuel Kiegeland
ETH Zürich
Sina Khajehabdollahi
Max Planck Institute
John Kong
University of Queensland
Jadon Nguyen
UCLA
Peter Nguyen
UCLA
Pranav Pudu
University of Texas
Gueren Sanford
Texas Tech University
Christopher Senn
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Elena Tapia
IBM, Zurich
Oliver Wang
UCLA
William Yang
Cambridge University
Byran You
University of Tokyo
FRIENDS & COMMUNITY
Claus Aranha
University of Tsukuba
Douglas Blackiston
Tufts University
Bert Chan
Independent Researcher
Wesley Chan
Monash University
Axel Cleeremans
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Antoine Cully
Imperial College London
Aleksandr Drozd
RIKEN CCS
Bill Duane
Former Google Executive
Chrisantha Fernando
DeepMind
Eduard Fosch-Villaronga
eLaw Center for Law and Digital Technologies
Rudolf Füchslin
Zurich University
Mario Galarreta
Stanford University
Neeraj Gupta
Oakland University
David Ha
Google Brain
Takuya Ibaraki
Neuro Innovation Unit, NTT
Hiroyuki Iizuka
Hokkaido University
Ryota Kanai
Araya
Sam Kriegman
Harvard University
Joel Lehman
Carper.ai
Grace Lindsay
University College London
Michael Muthukrishna
London School of Economics
Yukie Nagai
University of Tokyo
Anh-Thu (Kayde) Nguyen
Ritsumeikan University
Stefanos Nikolaidis
University of Southern California
Geoff Nitschke
University of Cape Town
Ken Regan
University at Buffalo
Sebastian Risi
IT University of Copenhagen
Lana Sinapayen
Sony CSL
Liza Solomonova
McGill University
Michael Spranger
Sony AI
Eric Schwitzgebel
University of California
Tim Taylor
Monash University
Julian Togelius
New York University
