It is a great pleasure for the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action at Michigan State University to host the 13th International Artificial Life Conference. Artificial life (ALife) refers to the synthesis and simulation of living systems as these occur in nature and also to possible alternative life forms and concepts that may not have occurred in natural evolution — that is, not only in “life-as-we-know-it”, but also “life-as-it-might-be.”

ALife research may use not only biochemical models, but also computer models and robotics. The Artificial Life conference is held every other year under the auspices of the International Society for Artificial Life (ISAL), alternating with the European Conference on Artificial Life.

This year’s major conference theme is “Evolution in Action.” Life is shaped by evolutionary processes, and ALife models are a powerful way to investigate and utilize this key characteristic of living systems. We encourage submissions by biologists as well as by computer scientists and engineers, especially interdisciplinary papers that explore the many ways that evolution and artificial life research intersect.

Other tracks this year include Behavior & Intelligence, Collective Dynamics, Synthetic Biology, and The Humanities and ALife. See the list of tracks below for examples of topics that may fall under these headings.