Dr. Charles A. Ofria is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University, the director of the Digital Evolution (DEvo) Lab there, and Director of the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action. He is the son of the late Charles Ofria, who developed the first fully integrated

shop Shop or shopping refers 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 *A wood ...

management program for the automotive repair industry. Ofria attended Stuyvesant High School 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 obtained a B.S. in Computer Science, Pure Mathematics, and Applied Mathematics from Stony Brook University in 1994, and a Ph.D. in Computation and Neural Systems from the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

in 1999. Ofria's research focuses on the interplay between

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

and Darwinian evolution. Ofria is one of the designers of

Avida Avida is an artificial life software platform to study the evolutionary biology of self-replicating and evolving computer programs ( digital organisms). Avida is under active development by Charles Ofria's Digital Evolution Lab at Michigan Stat ...

, an

artificial life Artificial life (often abbreviated ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry ...

software platform to study the

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes ( natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life ...

of self-replicating and evolving computer programs ( digital organisms, see also Digital organism simulators). Avida has been used extensively to study the basic processes that underlie Darwinian evolution. Avida is under active development in Ofria's Digital Evolution Lab at Michigan State University and was originally designed by Ofria,

Chris Adami Christoph Carl Herbert "Chris" Adami (born August 30, 1962) is a professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, as well as professor of Physics and Astronomy, at Michigan State University. Education Adami was born in Brussels, Belgium, and gr ...

and C. Titus Brown at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

in 1993.

Honors

Ofria received the NSF Career Award in 2007 and the Withrow Excellence Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2010 and for Excellence in Research in 2006 and 2016. He was also a 2017 winner of the William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award.

Representative journal publications

* Clune J, Pennock RT, Ofria C, Lenski RE (2012) Ontogeny tends to recapitulate phylogeny in digital organisms" ''The American Naturalist'' 180: E54–E63.
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* 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.
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* 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

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

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Citations {{DEFAULTSORT:Ofria, Charles Living people 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