University of Hawai`i at Manoa
Board of Directors, International Society for Artificial Life
Associate Editor, BioSystems: Journal of Biological and Information Processing Sciences
Editorial Board, Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines
Editorial Board, Artificial Life
I am investigating the theoretical foundations of evolutionary computation and evolutionary dynamics, including genetic algorithms, genetic programming, and theoretical population genetics. My work employs both mathematical analysis and computational experiments.
Highlights of recent activities
July, 2008, Beijing: To Lecture at the Complex Systems Summer School, in Beijing, China. Sponsored by the Santa Fe Institute in cooperation with the Institute of Theoretical Physics and the Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Held at the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Beijing, China. Co-directors: David P Feldman and Chen Xiao-song.
April, 2008. Authored language to protect a 130 acre remnant of Hawaiian dry forest in the Wailea 670 development on Maui; enacted into law by the Maui County Council.
Proof of a 20 year old conjecture on modifier gene evolution:
Altenberg, L. 2008. The Evolutionary Reduction Principle for Linear Variation in Genetic Transmission. Submitted.
October, 2007, Santa Fe: Invited participant in the Santa Fe Institute workshop, Modern Malware II.
August, 2007, Arlington: Panelist for the National Science Foundation Division of Emerging Frontiers program, Advancing Theory in Biology.
July, 2007, Beijing: Lecturer at the Complex Systems Summer School, in Beijing, China. Sponsored by the Santa Fe Institute in cooperation with the Institute of Theoretical Physics and the Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Held at the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Beijing, China. Co-directors: David P Feldman and Chen Xiao-song.
April, 2007, Honolulu: Invited Plenary Speaker and Program Committee Member for the First IEEE Symposium on Artificial Life, Honolulu, Hawai`i.
January, 2007, Santa Fe: Invited presentation for the workshop, “The Dynamic Structure of Robustness,” Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
July, 2006, Beijing: Lecturer at the Complex Systems Summer School, in Beijing, China. Sponsored by the Santa Fe Institute in cooperation with the Institute of Theoretical Physics and the Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Held at the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Beijing, China. Director: David P Feldman.
July, 2005, Santa Fe: Invited participant for the workshop, “The Road To Software Evolvability,” Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
June, 2005: Publication of Modularity: Understanding the Development and Evolution of Natural Complex Systems (Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology), Werner Callebaut and Diego Rasskin-Gutman, editors, including the chapter, Altenberg, L. Modularity in Evolution: Some Low-Level Questions.
February, 2004: Publication of Frontiers of Evolutionary Computation (Genetic Algorithms And Evolutionary Computation Series Vol. 11), Anil Menon, editor, including the chapter, Altenberg, L. Open Problems in the Spectral Analysis of Evolutionary Dynamics.
Education
1985. Ph.D. Theoretical Population Genetics. Stanford University. Advisor: Marcus W. Feldman. Thesis committee: Luca L. Cavalli-Sforza, Uri Liberman.
Exon shuffling in protein evolution, the genotype-phenotype map, development.
The evolution of modifier genes and genetic systems.
Cultural evolution.
Democratic economic systems and cooperative organization.
Ecological sustainability, biodiversity, and restoration.
Research Publications
Altenberg, L. 2008. The Evolutionary Reduction Principle for Linear Variation in Genetic Transmission. Submitted.
Altenberg, L. 2005. Modularity in Evolution: Some Low-Level Questions. In Modularity: Understanding the Development and Evolution of Complex Natural Systems, Diego Rasskin-Gutman and Werner Callebaut, editors. MIT Press, ISBN 0262033267.
Altenberg, L. 2004. Open Problems in the Spectral Analysis of Evolutionary Dynamics. Pages 73-99 in Frontiers of Evolutionary Computation, ed. Anil Menon, Genetic Algorithms And Evolutionary Computation Series Vol. 11, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, ISBN 1402075243.
Altenberg, L. 1995. The Schema Theorem and Price's Theorem. In Foundations of Genetic Algorithms 3, ed. Darrell Whitley and Michael Vose. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, pp. 23-49.
Altenberg, L. 1995. Genome growth and the evolution of the genotype-phenotype map. In Evolution and Biocomputation: Computational Models of Evolution, ed. Wolfgang Banzhaf and Frank H. Eeckman. Lecture Notes in Computer Science vol. 899. Springer-Verlag, pp. 205-259.
Altenberg, L. 1994. Emergent phenomena in genetic programming. In Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference on Evolutionary Programming, ed. Anthony V. Sebald and Lawrence J. Fogel. World Scientific, pp. 233-241.
Maui County Council, 2008. Language establishing a 130 acre conservation easement to protect native Hawaiian dry forest in Condition #27 of Ordinance #3554: A Bill for an Ordinance to Repeal Ordinance No. 2171 (1992) and to Establish Kihei-Makena Project District 9 (Wailea 670) Zoning (Conditional Zoning), for Approximately 670 Acres Situated at Paeahu, Palauea, Keahou, Maui, Hawaii.
Altenberg, L. 1991. The Ecological Living Group. Threshold 4 (2): 21-22. The network newsletter of the Student Environmental Action Coalition.
Altenberg, L. 1991. Show Some Class, Build a Green House, contributed sections in the Student Environmental Action Coalition, ed., The Student Environmental Action Guide. The Earth-Works Group, Berkeley, CA.
Altenberg, L. 1990. Student Co-ops and Ecocity Action. In C. Canfield, ed., Ecocity Conference 1990: Report of the First International Ecocity Conference, pp. 77-78. Urban Ecology, Berkeley, CA.
Altenberg, L. 1990. Earth Day Blues. The Missing Link 7 (5): 5, April 1990. Duke University.
2002-present: Department of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa: Associate Professor:
Research on evolutionary computation and theoretical population genetics.
1999-2001: Department of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa: Adjunct Assistant Professor:
Research on evolutionary computation and theoretical population genetics.
2000, April: Santa Fe Institute: Invited Visiting Researcher:
Working Group on Evolvability, Evolutionary Dynamics Program.
1997-1998: On leave at Vanderbilt University Medical Center:
Research on cryoglobulinemia, monoclonal gammopathies, cryofiltration apheresis, and Chlamydia pneumoniae. Invention of a dual-filter cryofiltration system, application of Biaxin to cryoglobulinemia, development of a cryoglobulinemia information site on the Web.
1998, October: Santa Fe Institute: Invited Visiting Researcher:
Adaptive Computation Program.
1994-1997: Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaii: Research Affiliate:
Theoretical foundations and design innovations for evolutionary computation. Visiting the Maui High Performance Computing Center, implementing genetic programming on the SP2 scalable parallel supercomputer.
1995, Summer: Santa Fe Institute: Invited Visiting Researcher:
Adaptive Computation Program.
1993-1994: Institute for Statics and Decision Sciences, Duke University: Instructor:
Theory of genetic algorithms and genetic programming as dynamical systems.
1991-1993: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University: Research Associate:
Computational study of self-organizing patterns in sediment flow.
Theory and design of genetic algorithms for optimization.
3D animation of dynamical systems on Silicon Graphics workstations. Theory on the evolution of genotype-phenotype maps, fitness landscapes, and genetic knowledge representation. Bifurcations in globally coupled maps. Population sustainability in heterogeneous habitats. C programming, LaTeX, Unix, NEXTSTEP.
1991: Complex Systems Summer School, Santa Fe Institute: Postdoctoral Training:
Study of topics in complex system sciences. Working group on theory of rugged adaptive landscapes. Presentations on the evolution of genetic operators and issues in evolutionary theory. Use of Sun Sparc workstations.
1988-1991: Department of Zoology, Duke University: Research Scientist:
Mathematical models of evolution involving complex breeding systems and multiple genes.
Analysis of chaos produced from frequency-dependent natural selection models.
Pascal and Mathematica programming. Initiated the First International Eco-City Conference, the Duke Recycling Program, the Green House ecological student residence. Taught a course on ecologically sustainable culture. System manager for NeXT workstation.
1987: Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University: Postdoctoral Fellow:
Research topics in theoretical population genetics.
1984-1986: Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University: Dean's Postdoctoral Fellow:
Theory on exon shuffling in protein evolution, and statistical analysis of DNA sequence data.
1979-1984: Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University: Research Assistant:
Theory on the evolution of modifier genes and genetic systems. Theory of positive matrices.
1978-1979: Department of Genetics, University of California, Berkeley: Undergraduate Research:
Theory of frequency-dependent natural selection.
Teaching Positions
2006, 2007: Santa Fe Institute Complex Systems Summer School in Beijing: Lecturer.
2002-present: Department of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa: Associate Professor:
Course Titles: Discrete Mathematics II, Evolutionary Computation, Genetic Programming.
2004: Collaboration with Prof. Anne Coopersmith, Department of Biology, Maui Community College:
Course Title: Action Research on a BioSecurity System for Hawai`i.
2000: Short Courses on the Mathematics of Biological Complexity, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Course Title: Complexity in Evolutionary Biology: Genetic Algorithms, Cellular Automata and Adaptive Landscapes. October 1-4, 2000.
1993: Instructor, Institute for Statics and Decision Sciences, Duke University:
Course Title: Evolutionary Computation Methods: Genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, genetic programming, artificial life and other topics.
1990: Instructor, House Course Program, Duke University:
Course Title: Escaping the Ecocidal Culture: Student Explorations of Ecological Lifestyles, Careers, and Social Change.
1986: Lecturer, Innovative Academic Courses, Stanford University:
Course Title: Democracy Beyond the Ballot Box: An Introduction to the World of Cooperatives.
1980-1982: Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Stanford University:
Course Title: Cell Development and Morphogenesis, Prof. Paul Green. Biostatistics, Prof. Marcus W. Feldman.
Invited Presentations
Santa Fe Institute workshop, “Fighting Modern Malware II,” October 10-12, 2007. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Organized by Matt Williamson (Sana Security) and Eric Davis (Google).
Invited Plenary Speaker, and Biology Session Chair, for the First IEEE Symposium on Artificial Life, Honolulu, Hawai`i. April 1-5, 2007. Hussein A. Abbass, Mark Bedau, Stefano Nolfi, Janet Wiles co-chairs.
Santa Fe Institute workshop, “The Dynamic Structure of Robustness,” January 4-6, 2007. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Erica Jen and Michele Girvan, co-chairs.
2005, July-August: Santa Fe Institue Worskhop On Software Evolvability. David Ackley and Stephanie Forest, co-chairs.
Konrad Lorenz Institute, Altenberg, Austria. Brown Bag Discussions, June 24 , 2003: “Robustness or Evolvability: Which Will Prevail?”
Special Lecture, IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence 2002, WCCI2002, Honolulu, Hawai`i. David Fogel, General Chair. May 12-17, 2002: “The Problem of Knowledge Incorporation in Evolutionary Algorithms”.
Plenary Speaker, IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation 2001, CEC2001, Seoul, South Korea. Jong-Hwan Kim, General Chair. May 27-30, 2001: “Exploration vs. Exploitation: Which Do Emergent Representations Choose?”
Plenary Speaker, EuroGP 2001. Network of Excellence in Evolutionary Computation, Lake Como, Italy. Julian Miller, Marco Tomassini, Co-chairs. April 18-20, 2001.
Altenberg Workshops in Theoretical Biology, Modularity: Understanding the Development and Evolution of Complex Natural Systems. Konrad Lorenz Institute, Altenberg, Austria. October 26-29, 2000.
Keynote speaker, Evolvability Workshop, Aritifical Life 7 Conference. Chrystopher Nehaniev, Chair; Mark Bedau, Conference Chair. August 1-8, 2000, Reed College, Portland Oregon.
Congress on Evolutionary Computation, Special Session on Theory and Foundations of Evolutionary Computation. David Fogel, Chair. July 16-19, 2000, San Diego, CA. Tutorial on Population Genetics and Evolutionary Computation.
Santa Fe Institute, Evolvability Working Group. Mark Bedau, Paul Marrow, Tom Ray, Chairs. April 6-9, 2000.
Workshop on Computational Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Florida State University. Joe Travis, Chair. May 6-8, 1999. Tallahassee, FL.
Santa Fe Institute Workshop, Towards a Comprehensive Dynamics of Evolution: Exploring the Interplay of Function, Selection, Neutrality, and Accident. “Genome Growth and the Evolution of Evolvability”. October 1998, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
New England Complex Systems Institute, Founding Conference. “The Evolution of Complex Organisms: Compression, Modularity, and Knowledge Representation”. October 1997. Nashua, New Hampshire.
Santa Fe Insitute Workshop, Adaptive Search on Biological and Computational Landscapes. “Genome Growth and the Evolution of the Genotype-Phenotype Map”. July 21-23, 1995, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Third Annual Conference on Evolutionary Programming. “Emergent Phenomena in Genetic Programming,” February, 1994, San Diego, CA.
Center for Computational Ecology, Yale University. “Theory on the evolution of the genotype-phenotype map,” September, 1992, New Haven, CT.
Biocomputation Workshop, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “Theory on the evolution and complexity of the genotype-phenotype map,” June, 1992, Monterey, CA.
Santa Fe Institute, Complex Systems Summer School. “How genetic operators can evolve,” June 1991, Santa Fe, NM.
North American Students of Cooperation Institute, University of Michigan. “The Co-op Angle on Student Activism,” November 1991, Ann Arbor, MI.
Center for Nonlinear and Complex Systems, Duke University. “Chaos from a model of frequency-dependent natural selection,” 1991.
Duke University Program in Genetics Colloquium, RNA: Genetics, Processing, and Post-transcriptional Control. “Exon shuffling in protein evolution: some theoretical implications,” 1991.
Interdisciplinary Research Center and Molecular Biology Institute Conference, Information Theory and Genome Sequencing, San Diego State University. “Selection for modularity in the genome,” April, 1990, San Diego, California.
Department of Mathematics, San Diego State University. “Selective forces on inheritance: genome congealing as a cousin to simulated annealing,” April, 1990.
Urban Ecology, First International Ecological City Conference. “Education for the ecological city movement: The importance of free social spaces in the university.” April 1990, Berkeley, CA.
National Youth Science Camp. “Curious meta-creatures of the new evolutionary landscape.” July, 1987, Bartow, West Virginia.
Participant, Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project Meeting on the Po`ouli, June 25, 2002, Maui Community College. Advocated cryopreservation of tissue for future cloning.
Volunteer, Auwahi Restoration Team, 2001-present, Auwahi, Maui, and Pu`u O Kali Restoration Group, 2003-present.
Member: Society for the Study of Evolution, American Society of Naturalists, American Association for the Advancement of Science, The Nature Conservancy, The Sierra Club, The Native Hawaiian Plant Society, Urban Ecology.