Dr. Charles A. Ofria is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the director of the Digital Evolution (DEvo) Lab at Michigan State University

Michigan State University

Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...

 and a co-founder of the BEACON Center

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...

 for the Study of Evolution in Action. Ofria's research focuses on the interplay between computer science

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

 and Darwinian evolution.

Avida

Avida

Avida is an artificial life software platform to study the evolutionary biology of self-replicating and evolving computer programs . Avida is under active development by Charles Ofria's Digital Evolution Lab at Michigan State University and was originally designed by Ofria, Chris Adami and C. Titus...

 is an artificial life

Artificial life

Artificial life is a field of study and an associated art form which examine systems related to life, its processes, and its evolution through simulations using computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline was named by Christopher Langton, an American computer scientist, in 1986...

 software platform to study the evolutionary biology of self-replicating and evolving computer programs (digital organism

Digital organism

A digital organism is a self-replicating computer program that mutates and evolves. Digital organisms are used as a tool to study the dynamics of Darwinian evolution, and to test or verify specific hypotheses or mathematical models of evolution...

s). Avida is under active development by Charles Ofria's Digital Evolution Lab at Michigan State University

Michigan State University

Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...

 and was originally designed by Ofria, Chris Adami

Chris Adami

Christoph Carl Herbert Adami is a professor at Michigan State University. He is best known for his work on Avida, an artificial life simulator used to study evolutionary biology. He received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal while serving at JPL...

 and C. Titus Brown at Caltech in 1993.

Representative journal publications

• On the gradual evolution of complexity and the sudden emergence of complex features.

Ofria C, Huang W and Torng E (to appear in Artificial Life)

• Effects of population size and mutation rate on the evolution of mutational robustness

Elena SF, Wilke CO, Ofria C, and Lenski RE, Evolution 61(3):666-674 (2007).

• Specialization in digital organisms

Ostrowski E, Ofria C, and Lenski RE, The American Naturalist 169:E1-E20 (2007).

• Balancing Robustness and Evolvability

Lenski RE, Barrick JE, Ofria C, PLoS Biology 4(12):e428 (2006).

• Sexual reproduction reshapes the genetic architecture of digital organisms

Misevic D, Ofria C, and Lenski RE
to appear in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Biological Sciences 273:457-464 (2006).

External links

• Avida Software
• Avida-ED Project - Robert T. Pennock
• An Avida Developer's Site
• The Evolutionary Origin of Complex Adaptive Features 2003 Nature Paper
• Reducible Complexity 2006 Science commentary on Evolution of Hormone-Receptor Complexity by Molecular Exploitation

Scientific publications featuring Avida

• R. E. Lenski, C. Ofria, T. C. Collier, C. Adami (1999). Genomic Complexity, Robustness, and Genetic Interactions in Digital Organisms. Nature 400:661-664. abstract of this article
• C.O. Wilke, J.L. Wang, C. Ofria, R.E. Lenski, and C. Adami (2001). Evolution of Digital Organisms at High Mutation Rate Leads To Survival of the Flattest. Nature 412:331-333.
• R.E. Lenski, C. Ofria, R.T. Pennock, and C. Adami (2003). The Evolutionary Origin of Complex Features. Nature 423:139-145.
• S.S. Chow, C.O. Wilke, C. Ofria, R.E. Lenski, and C. Adami (2004). Adaptive Radiation from Resource Competition in Digital Organisms. Science 305:84-86.