Charles A. Ofria is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

. He is the director of the Digital Evolution (DEvo) Lab and the

BEACON Center The BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action is a science and technology center in the United States, focused on experimental and applied research on evolutionary dynamics, sponsored by the National Science Foundation.shop Shop or shopping may refer to: Business and commerce * A casual word for a commercial establishment or for a place of business * Machine shop, a workshop for machining *"In the shop", referring to a car being at an automotive repair shop * Reta ...

management program for the automotive repair industry. He attended

Stuyvesant High School Stuyvesant High School ( ) is a co-ed, State school, public, college-preparatory, Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in Manhattan, New York City. The school, commonly called "Stuy" ( ) by its students, faculty, a ...

and graduated from

Ward Melville High School Ward Melville High School is a public high school in the Three Village Central School District of Suffolk County, New York on Long Island, serving grades ten through twelve. It is fed by the two junior high schools in the district: Paul J. ...

in 1991. He earned a B.S. in Computer Science, Pure Mathematics, and Applied Mathematics from

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

in 1994. He completed a Ph.D. in Computation and Neural Systems at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

in 1999.

Career

His research focuses on the relationship between computer science and Darwinian evolution. He is one of the original designers of

Avida Avida may refer to: * Avida (software), artificial life software platform * ''Avida'' (film), 2006 French film * Avida, the former name of the kibbutz Neve Harif * Mordechai Avida, Israeli radio broadcaster See also * Abida (biblical figure) ...

, an artificial life software platform used to study the evolutionary biology of self-replicating digital organisms. Avida was initially developed at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

in 1993 by Ofria,

Chris Adami Christoph Carl Herbert "Chris" Adami (born August 30, 1962) is a German-American professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, as well as professor of physics and astronomy, at Michigan State University. He is a core faculty member of the Eco ...

and C. Titus Brown and remains under active development in his Digital Evolution Lab at

Awards and Recognition

Ofria has received several awards, including: * NSF CAREER Award (2007) * Withrow Excellence Award for Teaching (2010) and Research (2006, 2016) * William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award (2017) * Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

(2022)

Selected publications

Journal articles

* Clune J, Pennock RT, Ofria C, Lenski RE (2012) Ontogeny tends to recapitulate phylogeny in digital organisms" ''The American Naturalist'' 180: E54–E63.
pdf
* Clune J, Goldsby HJ, Ofria C, and Pennock RT (2011) Selective pressures for accurate altruism targeting: Evidence from digital evolution for difficult-to-test aspects of inclusive fitness theory. Proceedings of the Royal Society. 278: 666-674.
PDF
* Clune J, Stanley KO, Pennock RT, Ofria C (2011) On the performance of indirect encoding across the continuum of regularity. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation. 15(3): 346-367.
PDF
* Clune J, Misevic D, Ofria C, Lenski RE, Elena SF, and Sanjuán R. Natural selection fails to optimize mutation rates for long-term adaptation on rugged fitness landscapes * Ofria C, Huang W and Torng E. On the gradual evolution of complexity and the sudden emergence of complex features *Elena SF, Wilke CO, Ofria C, and Lenski RE. Effects of population size and mutation rate on the evolution of mutational robustness *Ostrowski E, Ofria C, and Lenski RE, Ecological specialization and adaptive decay in digital organisms *Lenski RE, Barrick JE, Ofria C. Balancing Robustness and Evolvability *Misevic D, Ofria C, and Lenski RE. Sexual reproduction reshapes the genetic architecture of digital organisms

Publications on Avida

R. E. Lenski Richard E. Lenski (born 1956) is an American evolutionary biologist who is the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a MacArthur Fellow. ...

, C. Ofria, T. C. Collier, C. Adami (1999). Genomic Complexity, Robustness, and Genetic Interactions in Digital Organisms. ''Nature'' 400:661-664.
Abstract
* C. Adami, C. Ofria, and T.C. Collier (2000). Evolution of biological complexity. "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" 97:4463-4468
Abstract
* C. O. Wilke, J. L. Wang, C. Ofria,

, and C. Adami (2001). Evolution of Digital Organisms at High Mutation Rate Leads To Survival of the Flattest. ''Nature'' 412:331-33
Abstract
*

, C. Ofria, R. T. Pennock, and C. Adami (2003). The Evolutionary Origin of Complex Features. ''Nature'' 423:139-145
Abstract
* S.S. Chow, C.O. Wilke, C. Ofria,

, and C. Adami (2004). Adaptive Radiation from Resource Competition in Digital Organisms. ''Science'' 305:84-8
Abstract

References

External links

Avida Software
led by Robert T. Pennock
An Avida Developer's SiteThe Evolutionary Origin of Complex Adaptive Features
2003 Nature Paper
2010 Podcast with Carl Zimmer in Microbe WORLDOfria's Publications
on

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

Citations {{DEFAULTSORT:Ofria, Charles Living people American evolutionary biologists Researchers of artificial life Michigan State University faculty Ward Melville High School alumni California Institute of Technology alumni Stony Brook University alumni 1973 births Stuyvesant High School alumni