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Stuart Alan KauffmanAmerican theoretical biologist and researcher
Date of Birth: 28.09.1939
Country:  USA |
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Biography of Stuart Alan Kauffman
Stuart Alan Kauffman is an American theoretical biologist and researcher of complex systems. He is best known for his work on the origin of life on Earth. He is also a professor of biology, writer, and author of several books and numerous articles. In recognition of his contributions, he has been awarded The Mildred Trotter Prize.
Early Life and Education
Stuart Kauffman was born on September 28, 1939. He completed his undergraduate studies at Dartmouth in 1960. In 1963, he received a Bachelor of Medicine degree with honors from Oxford University. In 1968, he completed his medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco. After training as an emergency medical specialist, Kauffman developed an interest in the developmental biology of Drosophila. He first conducted research at the University of Chicago and then moved to the University of Pennsylvania, where he became a professor of biochemistry and biophysics from 1975 to 1995.
Research and Achievements
From 1986 to 1997, Kauffman worked at the Santa Fe Institute, a non-profit research institute focused on studying complex systems. He applied models of Boolean networks to simplify genetic schemes in various areas of biology, including the origin of life, genetic regulatory networks, and adaptive landscapes in evolutionary biology. Kauffman holds several patents in biotechnology, particularly in combinatorial chemistry and applied molecular evolution.
In 1996, Kauffman founded BiosGroup, a company based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that addresses the same issues as the Santa Fe Institute but in a commercial context. BiosGroup utilizes its expertise to solve problems in the business sector. In 2003, BiosGroup was acquired by NuTech Solutions, which later became part of the Netezza group of companies based in Massachusetts in 2008.
From 2004 to 2009, Kauffman held positions at the University of Calgary, where he was a professor of biological sciences, physics, and astronomy. He also served as an adjunct professor in the philosophy department and chaired the iCORE (Informatics Research Circle of Excellence) department. Moreover, he led the Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics.
In January 2009, Kauffman became a distinguished professor at Tampere University of Technology in Finland, working in the signal processing department. His contract expires at the end of 2012. The research project of the department focuses on developing stochastic models with delay in genetic regulatory networks based on gene expression data at the individual molecule level.
In January 2010, Kauffman joined the faculty of the University of Vermont, where he continues his work at the university's Complex Systems Center.
