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About

Steen Rasmussen is a pioneering figure in the field of artificial life and living technology, whose work bridges the gap between biological principles and engineered systems. His research focuses on the core question of how to implement life-like processes in non-biological media, from chemical protocells to hybrid neuro-robotic systems. Rasmussen’s most influential contribution is the concept of “living technology,” which he articulated in his highly cited 2009 paper (128 citations), where he demonstrates how principles from biology—such as self-reproduction, evolution, and adaptation—can be exploited in reconfigurable hardware, evolvable robots, and chemical systems. He also developed a groundbreaking hybrid neuro-robotic system that connects a lamprey brain to a mobile robot, offering a novel paradigm for studying sensory-motor learning in neural tissues. More recently, his work has extended into machine learning for drug design and the assembly of evolvable artificial cells, where he designs molecular components to achieve minimal life. Rasmussen’s vision, inspired by von Neumann’s early ideas, continues to shape the frontier of synthetic biology and autonomous systems, making him a key thinker in the quest to engineer life-like technologies.