Saturday, March 05, 2005

Martyn Amos: Lecturer, Blogger


Blogger's Note: As part of my series on the expanding nanotech blogging universe, I now present Martyn Amos, a lecturer (now, there's a word packed with negative cultural connotations, yyyawwwwnnnn) in Computer Science at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. Here, he'll introduce us to his blog: Martyn Amos: Complexity, Nanotechnology and Bio-computing (Wake up! The title is finished!):

amosI gained my Ph.D in Computer Science from the University of Warwick in 1997. I then moved on to become a Leverhulme Special Research Fellow (1998-2000, University of Liverpool) and then Lecturer in Bioinformatics (2000-2002 at Liverpool and 2002-2003 at Exeter).

I'm currently a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Computer Science at the University of Exeter, and a member of the Artificial Intelligence and Emergent Technologies group. Fundamentally, I am interested in the intersection between computer science and biology. My research interests include molecular and cellular computing (the use of organic and living materials for the construction of micro and nano-scale computing devices), artificial life (the study of "life as it could be"), complex systems, and bio-inspired algorithmics (for example, the development of new optimisation methods based on the operation of ant or bacterial colonies). I am also interested in modelling all manner of biological systems, from bees foraging to complex bacterial ecologies and the spread of diseases such as MRSA.

I hope to act as a bridge between the worlds of biology and engineering/computer science/mathematics. Often it is the case that very similar fundamental concepts exist in multiple discipines, but they are described in very different language (for example, the Turing machine head and DNA poymerase). I hope to draw on my expertise to faciliate cross-talk between different fields of study, as well as contributing original research of my own.

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It's good to be a blogger with tenure
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