In a Nutshell

My name is Ben, and I am a postdoctoral researcher in computational physics and bio-inspired artificial intelligence. My research interests span from soft- and active-matter physics and non-equilibrium thermodynamics over complex biological systems to non-linear optimization and collective multi-agent-based machine learning.

During my studies at the TU Wien, I worked on a variety of topics such as quantum optics, computational materials science, and reinforcement learning of decision-making strategies of cells. After my PhD, my experience helped me conduct cutting-edge research with industrial partners in robust, biologically inspired autonomous navigation in maritime environments.

Currently, my research is focused on the Evolutionary Implications of Self-Assembling Cybernetic Materials with Collective Problem-Solving Intelligence at Multiple Scales. To this end, I utilize cutting-edge multi-agent-based machine learning techniques to model and train multi-scale competency architectures that represent the foundation of biology: we deploy swarms of virtual, adaptive, communicating agents that implement a minimal model for morphogenesis of multi-cellular tissue based on individual decision-making, and we investigate how evolutionary processes and connectionist approaches operate on such hierarchical agential- rather than passive materials.

Further, I investigate how ideas from developmental biology, biophysics, and tools from Artificial Life (specifically Neural Cellular Automata and neuroevolution) gear into each other and can be tuned into decentralized decision-making policies for robust autonomous navigation strategies for virtual, in-silico microswimmers, or facilitate physiological computation in soft-matter systems.

Through this, I aim to further the understanding of learning, cognition, and (biological & artificial) intelligence as a collective, scale-free phenomenon and thus shed new light on fundamental biological processes such as computation, intelligence, and evolution at the edge of order and chaos.

I am a passionate learner, a creative interdisciplinary scientific researcher, and AI, technology, and - most recently - a biology enthusiast.