Steen Rasmussen
External Professor
Steen Rasmussen’s scientific focus is to understand the creative forces in nature by using self-organization to engineer minimal living and intelligent processes. In his early career, he worked 20 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA (1988-2007, Alien of Extraordinary Abilities) contributing to a variety of interdisciplinary research programs and projects. He was part of the core group establishing the Artificial Life field in the late 80s and in the 90s he co-developed the Transportation Simulation System (TRANSIMS) implemented by the US Department of Transportation, integrated simulation frameworks for urban security systems. He also developed web-based disaster mitigation tools, which were deployed in Cerro Grande Wildfire, May 2000, where 20,000 people were evacuated, and he was part of the original Los Alamos team on Critical Infrastructure Protection, implemented by the US Department of Homeland Security after September 11, 2001.
In 2004 he co-founded the European Center for Living Technology (ECLT) Venice, Italy, and late 2007 he returned to Denmark as Director of the Center for Fundamental Living Technology (FLinT) at SDU. In 2009 he founded the Initiative for Science Society and Policy (ISSP), which together with SFI and the ECLT allows Rasmussen to explore how living and intelligent technologies change society and what it means to be human. He has consulted on science and technology issues for the European Commission, Danish Parliament, German Bundestag, US Congress, as well as businesses and NGOs. He was part of the Danish Government’s Data Ethics Expert Group in 2018.