Hector Zenil
h [dot] zenil [at] sheffield [dot] ac [dot] uk

Contact Info

Department of Computer Science
University of Sheffield
Regent Court, 211 Portobello
Sheffield, S1 4DP, UK



Broadly speaking, and motivated by foundational questions, I try to connect the world (or what happens in it) to information and computation.

I am interested in the foundations and applications of computation, and in the dynamic behaviour of simple computer programs with special attention to trade-offs among complexity measures.

I am a researcher at the Behavioural and Evolutionary Theory Lab at the Computer Science Department and the Kroto Research Institute of the University of Sheffield; and I've been an R&D fellow and a senior research associate for Wolfram Research since 2006. I've recently been appointed FP7 Expert Evaluator for the European Commission in 2011.

I am also a member of the Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi); honorary associate of ASSRU (University of Trento, Italy); member of the Turing Centenary Advisory Committee in the UK; member of LCCOMP and the C3 in Mexico, and I serve on the board of directors of LABORES in Paris. I've been also a faculty member of the Wolfram Science Summer School since 2007 and a ACM reviewer since 2000.

I have held various visiting positions in the U.S. While a graduate student I was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) during the Summer of 2007 and was a visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon during the Spring semester of 2008.


PhD. Philosophy
(candidate)
U. of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

PhD. Computer Science
University of Lille 1


MPhil. Logic (LoPHISS)
IHPST (Paris 1/ENS Ulm/CNRS)

BSc. Mathematics,
UNAM








Main Research Interests

  • Experimental approaches to and applications of algorithmic information theory, measures of randomness and complexity.
  • The behaviour of small and simple computer programs and their dynamical qualitative properties, particularly in connection to (Turing) universality.
  • Foundations of computational models of biological and physical systems.
  • The thermodynamics of computation and computational physics.
  • Algorithmic probabilistic approaches to automatic theorem proving.
  • Intersections between algorithmic complexity and cryptography.

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Hector Zenil, Stephen Wolfram, Paul Davies, Ugo Pagallo, Gregory Chaitin, Cristian Calude, Karl Svozil, Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic and John Casti
From left to right:
Hector Zenil, Stephen Wolfram, Paul Davies, Ugo Pagallo, Greg Chaitin, Cris Calude, Karl Svozil, Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic and John Casti.
University of Vermont, USA. 2007.
(Picture by Sally McCay)


Media Coverage



Selected Papers

  • H. Zenil and J.A.R. Marshall, Aspects of Computation Essential to Evolution and Life, ACM Communications (Ubiquity) "Evolutionary Computation and the Processes of Life", forthcoming. [PDF]
  • K. Dingle, H. Zenil, A.A. Louis and J.A.R. Marshall, Simplicity Bias in Genotype-Phenotype Maps, In Preparation.
  • H. Zenil, On the Dynamic Behaviour of Turing Universal Machines, Ninth ICNAAM-ISCS, forthcoming in Complex Systems, 2012. [PDF]
  • J.-P. Delahaye and H. Zenil, Numerical Evaluation of the Complexity of Short Strings: A Glance Into the Innermost Structure of Algorithmic Randomness, Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, 2012. [PDF] [Additional Material]
  • H. Zenil, F. Soler-Toscano and J. Joosten, Empirical Encounters With Computational Irreducibility and Unpredictability, vol. 21, Minds and Machines, vol. 21, Springer 2011. [PDF].
  • H. Zenil, J.-P. Delahaye and C. Gaucherel, Image Information Content Characterization and Classification by Physical Complexity, Complexity, Elsevier, 2012. [PDF]
  • J. Joosten, H. Zenil and F. Soler-Toscano, Fractal Dimension as an Indication of the Terminating Runtime of Discrete Dynamical Systems, (abstract p. 214) in S. Thurner M. Szell (eds), Löcker Verlag, Vienna 2011.
  • J. Joosten, F. Soler-Toscano and H. Zenil, Program-size Versus Time Complexity, Speed-up and Slowdown Phenomena in Small Turing Machines, Int. Journ. of Unconventional Computing, special issue on Physics and Computation, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 353--387, 2011. [PDF]
  • N. Gauvrit, J.-P. Delahaye and H. Zenil, The Sloane Gap: On the Distribution of Integers in the OEIS, French version published in Mathématiques et Sciences Humaines - Mathematics and Social Sciences n° 194, 2011. [PDF]
  • H. Zenil, Compression-based Investigation of the Dynamical Properties of Cellular Automata and Other Systems, Complex Systems, 19(1), pages 1-28, 2010. [PDF]
  • J. Joosten, F. Soler-Toscano and H. Zenil, Complejidad descriptiva y computacional en máquinas de Turing pequeñas, Actas de las V Jornadas Ibéricas, Lógica Universal e Unidade da Ciência, CFCUL, 2010. [PDF]
  • N. Gauvrit, H. Zenil, J.-P. Delahaye, Assessing Cognitive Randomness: A Kolmogorov Complexity Approach, arXiv:1106.3059v1 [cs.CC], 2011. [PDF]

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Book Chapters


  • G.J. Martinez, J.C. Seck Tuoh Mora and H. Zenil, Universality in Cellular Automata a Short Review: Class IV versus Class III, in H. Zenil (ed), Irreducibility and Computational Equivalence: Wolfram Science 10 Years After the Publication of A New Kind of Science, In preparation.
  • H. Zenil, From Computer Runtimes to the Length of Proofs: With an Algorithmic Probabilistic Application to Waiting Times in Automatic Theorem Proving, in M.J. Dinneen et al. (Eds.): Theoretical Computer Science and Applications, WTCS 2012 (Calude's Festschrift), LNCS 7160, pp. 224-240, Springer, 2012. [PDF]
  • H. Zenil, and J.-P. Delahaye, Un método estable para la evaluación de la complejidad algorítmica de cadenas cortas (A Stable Method for the Evaluation of the Algorithmic Complexity of Short Strings), in G.J. Martinez, H. Zenil and C.R. Stevens (eds), Complex Systems as Computing Models, Luniver Press, 2011. [PDF]
  • H. Zenil and J.-P. Delahaye, An Algorithmic Information-theoretic Approach to the Behaviour of Financial Markets, in S. Zambelli, D.A.R. George (eds.) Nonlinearity, Complexity and Randomness in Economics: Towards Algorithmic Foundations for Economics, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. [PDF]
  • Joost J. Joosten, Fernando Soler-Toscano, Hector Zenil, Complejidad descriptiva y computacional en máquinas de Turing pequeñas, en Lógica Universal e Unidade da Ciência, Centro de Filosofia das Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, pp. 11--32, 2011. [PDF]



Books & Edited Volumes

 

  • I. Zelinka, A. Sanayei, H. Zenil and O.E. Rössler (eds), Emergence, Complexity, and Computation in Nature, LNCS Series, Springer, forthcoming in 2012.
  • H. Zenil (ed), Irreducibility and Computational Equivalence: Wolfram Science 10 Years After the Publication of A New Kind of Science, forthcoming in 2012.

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Unpublished

  • L'approche algorithmique de l'aléatoire et les fondements d'une théorie algorihmique du monde, thesis to obtain the PhD degree in philosophy under the advice of Jean Mosconi, IHPST (Paris 1/ENS Ulm/CNRS). (in progress)
  • Une approche experimentale à la théorie algorithmique de la complexité, thesis to obtain the PhD degree in computer science under the advice and guidance of Jean-Paul Delahaye and Cristian Calude (jury members: Greg Chaitin, Serge Grigorieff, Mathieu Philippe and Hervé Zwirn), University of Lille 1, 2011. [thesis reports]
  • Calcul et hyper calcul, (mémoire) to obtain the Master's degree in logic (LOPHISS) under the advice of Jacques Dubucs at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2006. 16/20
  • Encaje de las Redes Neuronales Recurrentes Analógicas en la Jerarquía Aritmética, to be awarded the bachelor in science (mathematics) degree, under the advice of Francisco Hernández-Quiroz, at the Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM, 2005.

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Essays

  • H. Zenil, The World is Either Algorithmic or Mostly Random, FXQi Contest: Is Reality Digital or Analog? 3rd Prize winner, February 2011. [PDF]
  • H. Zenil, A Rambling Walk Through Randomness, In preparation.

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Selected Online Presentations



Organizing, Reviewing & Committee Memberships

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Selected Demonstrations

Demonstrations are small pieces of peer-reviewed dynamical programs written in Mathematica illustrating, in my case, a computer science or a mathematical logic concept.

If you do not have Mathematica in order to run these Demonstrations you can download the Wolfram CDF Player for free.



Recent Talks & Lecturing

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Awards & Grants

  • Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi) mini-grant awarded through the Silicon Valley Community Foundation for the project "Computation and Time", 2012.
  • Winning scientific image of the "2011 Kroto Institute Image Competition" with the image entitled "Runtime Space in a Peano Curve" in the category of Computational Imagery, 2011.
  • 3rd Place Prize "Reality: Digital or Analog" Contest 2011, awarded by the Foundational Questions Institute (Essay title: "The World is Either Algorithmic or Mostly Random") announced at the World Science Festival, NYC, 2011.
  • Bourse aux jeunes chercheurs Comité National Français d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences, 2011.
  • Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (bourse de mobilité aires culturelles), 2007, University of Paris.
  • Association for Symbolic Logic (ASL) Travel Grant Award (CiE 06, Swansea UK)
  • NSF and the New England Complex Institute (NECSI) (ICCS06-Boston, USA)
  • Université de Lille III, Kurt Gödel: The Writings, Maison de la Recherche 2006, Lille, France.
  • Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge University, UK (Visiting fellow, Workshop LAAW04, Wolfson Court, Girton College, UK), 2006.
  • CONACYT, Mexico (Masters and PhD Scolarships from the Mexican and French governments), 2005.



Other Professional Experience

Language Evaluator
2006-2007
European Language Resources Association (ELRA)

ELDA - Evaluations and Language Resources Distribution Agency

TC-STAR (Technology and Corpora for Speech to Speech Translation), Paris, France.


Technical assistant
2003-2005
Conacyt-UNAM

(Winner of the best Mexican scientific portal prize awarded by the SOMEDICYT in 2006)
Cienciorama, Mexico City, Mexico.




Shareholder and CEO
1998-2003
(having as customers companies such as Telcel, Maxcom, Nextel, Unefon, ADT, Alestra (AT&T), among others)
Enterprise Business Solutions (EBS), Mexico City, Mexico.



IT consultant
1996-2000
CNBV (the Mexican banking regulatory commission), KPMG and other TELCOs.
Mexico City, Mexico.



Volunteering & Internships
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Summer 2007
Mars Gravity Biosatellite team

Supporting member of the software engineering team for the program, in charge of assembling, reviewing and enhancing software requirements and flowdown.
Project co-sponsored by the NASA.

The International Wikimania Conference
Summer 2006

for the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (the Wikipedia Foundation)
Wikimedia Organization Team, July-August, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Summer 2006
Artificial Gravity Project (test subject)
Man-Vehicle Laboratory, August, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Mexican Consulate in Seattle, WA.
December 2003-January 2004

Documentation and Consular Activities
Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.



Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-123 liftoff
(video by H. Zenil on March 11, 2008)


This video recording was made from the vantage point of the Banana river, 6 miles from the Shuttle platform in a restricted area inside the Kennedy Space Center. The STS-123 was the 25th. flight to the International Space Station (ISS) and delivered a Japanese module and the Canadian Dextre robot.

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NKS School trip to San Gimignano, Italy
(Summer, 2009)


From left to right the school instructors: Hector Zenil, Jamie Williams, Paul-Jean Letourneau,
Tommaso Bolognesi, Jean Baetens. Among the participants: Ray Aschheim.




created at TagCrowd.com

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Héctor Zenil-Chávez, Personal Homepage 2006-2011


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Internal Links

Algorithmic Nature
Research Programme

Randomness Through Computation

A Computable Universe

My blog Anima Ex Machina

Visual Turing
Hommage Gallery

Shortest Universal Machine Implementation Contest

 

Repositories

My papers in ArXiv

My papers in PhilSci Archive

My papers in Econpaper

My papers in Nature Precedings

My Demonstrations

My OEIS sequences

My pictures

My videos

 

Institutional Affiliations

BET Lab

Wolfram Science

IHPST

LABORES

ASSRU

FQXi

LCCOMP

C3 UNAM

 

Others

Cellular Automata
Sources Repository

APROS at CMU

Logic and Proofs
Open Learning Initiative

Online Handbook of Applied Cryptography

String Similarity Metrics

World of Symbols

Mondovortoj Centre for Computational Linguistics

Donald Knuth
Online Lectures

Stephen Wolfram at TED

Docudrama of Douglas Hofstadter, Daniel Dennett, Marvin Minsky

What is Reality?

Complexification:
A Gallery of Computation

Claude Shannon Memorial
by Neil Sloane