Johannes Jaeger (also simply known as Yogi)
is a freelance researcher and educator who aspires to be a modern-day natural philosopher.
He is currently the leader of the project “Pushing the Boundaries: Agency, Evolution, and the Dynamic Emergence of Expanding Possibilities,” which is funded by the John Templeton Foundation, and co-led by Prof. Tarja Knuuttila at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Vienna.
Yogi is associate faculty at the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) Vienna. He is a scholar at the Ronin Institute.
Trained as a geneticist working with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster by Walter Gehring at the University of Basel, Yogi soon turned to theoretical biology and the philosophy of science by obtaining a masters degree in holistic science with Brian Goodwin at Schumacher College in Dartington, Devon, where he was introduced to process thinking and dynamical systems modelling. He received his PhD in genetics in 2005 from Stony Brook University, where he combined his empirical and theoretical skills in the laboratory of John Reinitz (currently at the University of Chicago) to study pattern-forming gene networks in Drosophila embryos using quantitative microscopy, model fitting, and data-driven computational modelling (before these approaches were popular in systems biology). From there, he moved into the comparative study of embryonic development (still using a quantitative and model-based approach) in different species of flies as a postdoctoral research fellow with Michael Akam at the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge, UK. From 2008 to 2015, he continued this pioneering work to study developmental evolution as an independent group leader at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, where he worked with a wonderful team of interdisciplinary researchers that included experimental biologists, computer scientists, and mathematicians.
During his entire empirical research career, Yogi maintained an interest in fundamental conceptual and philosophical questions regarding our methods for understanding living systems and their evolution. In 2015, during his year-long stay as an invited fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study Berlin), he decided to dedicate himself fully to such philosophical questions, looking at the nature of the organism and its role in evolution, as the Scientific Director of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Science (KLI) in Klosterneuburg, near Vienna, where he remained until 2017. Since then, he has been trying to make a living as a freelance academic, because he no longer agrees with the cult of productivity that reigns supreme in academic research institutions, severely impacting freedom of research and the long-term productivity of science.
Since 2015, Yogi has been a visiting scholar at the Center of Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD), a fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (CRI, now Learning Planet Institute) in Paris, and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS). He was a regular guest lecturer at the Department for Molecular Evolution & Development at the University of Vienna, and held the D’Alembert Research Chair awarded by the Institut d’Études Avancées (IEA) Paris, and Paris-Saclay University in 2019/20.
Yogi regularly teaches graduate-level courses in evolutionary, developmental, and systems biology at the University of Cambridge and the Gulbenkian Institute in Oeiras, Portugal, and has been the director of the biennial Venice Summer School in Evolutionary Developmental Biology since 2011. He also teaches a Crash Course in Philosophy for researchers, and facilitates retreats and workshops on how to “Survive and Thrive in Contemporary Academia” aimed towards early-career researchers. Last but not least, he worked as a substitute science teacher at a local Montessori school, teaching 12–15 year olds what life, the universe, and everything are really about.
Yogi is a strong advocate and practitioner of Open Science.
He lives somewhere in the Viennese exurbs, between Danubian floodplains and the modest Eastern beginnings of the Alps, where he enjoys the beautiful countryside just as much as the proximity of the humming cultural and scientific hub that is Vienna.
His personal website is: http://www.johannesjaeger.eu, where he (infrequently) writes his blog “Untethered in the Platonic Realm.”
You can find detailed information on Yogi’s academic work and publication record via Google Scholar and ORCID.
He is trying to avoid social media these days, but you can follow Yogi under @[email protected] on Mastodon, or @yoginho on that site that is now run by an evil libertarian neo-feudalist.
Many of Yogi's lectures are available online:
Beyond Networks
Lecture Series developed for the Evolutionary Systems Biology Masters Programme at the University of Vienna (2018-2020).
Science as Process and Perspective
A crash course in the philosophy of science for researchers at all stages in the natural, formal, and social sciences.
Modelling Developmental Systems
A short masters-level course on how and why to model developmental systems in biology.
And, as an added bonus, here is a fun talk about the nature of time and change.
is a freelance researcher and educator who aspires to be a modern-day natural philosopher.
He is currently the leader of the project “Pushing the Boundaries: Agency, Evolution, and the Dynamic Emergence of Expanding Possibilities,” which is funded by the John Templeton Foundation, and co-led by Prof. Tarja Knuuttila at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Vienna.
Yogi is associate faculty at the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) Vienna. He is a scholar at the Ronin Institute.
Trained as a geneticist working with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster by Walter Gehring at the University of Basel, Yogi soon turned to theoretical biology and the philosophy of science by obtaining a masters degree in holistic science with Brian Goodwin at Schumacher College in Dartington, Devon, where he was introduced to process thinking and dynamical systems modelling. He received his PhD in genetics in 2005 from Stony Brook University, where he combined his empirical and theoretical skills in the laboratory of John Reinitz (currently at the University of Chicago) to study pattern-forming gene networks in Drosophila embryos using quantitative microscopy, model fitting, and data-driven computational modelling (before these approaches were popular in systems biology). From there, he moved into the comparative study of embryonic development (still using a quantitative and model-based approach) in different species of flies as a postdoctoral research fellow with Michael Akam at the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge, UK. From 2008 to 2015, he continued this pioneering work to study developmental evolution as an independent group leader at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, where he worked with a wonderful team of interdisciplinary researchers that included experimental biologists, computer scientists, and mathematicians.
During his entire empirical research career, Yogi maintained an interest in fundamental conceptual and philosophical questions regarding our methods for understanding living systems and their evolution. In 2015, during his year-long stay as an invited fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study Berlin), he decided to dedicate himself fully to such philosophical questions, looking at the nature of the organism and its role in evolution, as the Scientific Director of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Science (KLI) in Klosterneuburg, near Vienna, where he remained until 2017. Since then, he has been trying to make a living as a freelance academic, because he no longer agrees with the cult of productivity that reigns supreme in academic research institutions, severely impacting freedom of research and the long-term productivity of science.
Since 2015, Yogi has been a visiting scholar at the Center of Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD), a fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (CRI, now Learning Planet Institute) in Paris, and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS). He was a regular guest lecturer at the Department for Molecular Evolution & Development at the University of Vienna, and held the D’Alembert Research Chair awarded by the Institut d’Études Avancées (IEA) Paris, and Paris-Saclay University in 2019/20.
Yogi regularly teaches graduate-level courses in evolutionary, developmental, and systems biology at the University of Cambridge and the Gulbenkian Institute in Oeiras, Portugal, and has been the director of the biennial Venice Summer School in Evolutionary Developmental Biology since 2011. He also teaches a Crash Course in Philosophy for researchers, and facilitates retreats and workshops on how to “Survive and Thrive in Contemporary Academia” aimed towards early-career researchers. Last but not least, he worked as a substitute science teacher at a local Montessori school, teaching 12–15 year olds what life, the universe, and everything are really about.
Yogi is a strong advocate and practitioner of Open Science.
He lives somewhere in the Viennese exurbs, between Danubian floodplains and the modest Eastern beginnings of the Alps, where he enjoys the beautiful countryside just as much as the proximity of the humming cultural and scientific hub that is Vienna.
His personal website is: http://www.johannesjaeger.eu, where he (infrequently) writes his blog “Untethered in the Platonic Realm.”
You can find detailed information on Yogi’s academic work and publication record via Google Scholar and ORCID.
He is trying to avoid social media these days, but you can follow Yogi under @[email protected] on Mastodon, or @yoginho on that site that is now run by an evil libertarian neo-feudalist.
Many of Yogi's lectures are available online:
Beyond Networks
Lecture Series developed for the Evolutionary Systems Biology Masters Programme at the University of Vienna (2018-2020).
Science as Process and Perspective
A crash course in the philosophy of science for researchers at all stages in the natural, formal, and social sciences.
Modelling Developmental Systems
A short masters-level course on how and why to model developmental systems in biology.
And, as an added bonus, here is a fun talk about the nature of time and change.
Marcus Neustetter (also simply known as Marcus)
is an artist.
Marcus is an adjunct professor with Nelson Mandela University, and currently moves between his studios in Johannesburg and Vienna.
He earned his undergraduate and Masters Degree in Fine Arts (2001) from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Interested in cross-disciplinary practice, site-specificity, socially engaged interventions, and the intersection of art and activism, Neustetter has produced artworks, projects, performances and installations across Africa, Europe, America and Asia. Searching for a balance between poetic form and asking critical questions, his media fluctuate in response to concept and context. His ideas often circle the intersection of art, science, and technology in an attempt to find new perspectives on his creative process.
As artistic director, facilitator, researcher, and strategist to various creative industry areas, he finds himself building opportunities and networks that develop interest beyond his personal artistic practice into seeking entrepreneurial and alternatively cultural ecosystems through his 20-year collaboration with Stephen Hobbs as The Trinity Session.
Marcus' website is: https://marcusneustetter.com.
Some fun video links to get to know Marcus' work and ideas:
Seeking Dialogue and Unfolding Meaning
Leonardo Laser - Paris (March 2022)
Shedding Light on South Africa's Dark History
An interview by Jane O’Brien, filmed by Allen McGreevey, edited by Joni Mazer-Field, produced by Mat Morrison.
BBC News (January 2016)
Lead the Way
Moon Gallery - Artist Talk (April 2021)
Moments of Inspiration and Playful Interventions
TEDxJohannesburg (January 2010)
Art, Place, and Dislocation in the 21st Century City
Creative Time Summit - New York (2013)
ZKM - Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe
Artist Talk: Digital Imaginaries - Africas in Production (November 2018)
Erosion Performance - Eyewitness News
6th Annual "Infecting the City" Arts Festival - Cape Town (March 2013)
Artist Presentation
World Technology Summit, New York (2015)
is an artist.
Marcus is an adjunct professor with Nelson Mandela University, and currently moves between his studios in Johannesburg and Vienna.
He earned his undergraduate and Masters Degree in Fine Arts (2001) from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Interested in cross-disciplinary practice, site-specificity, socially engaged interventions, and the intersection of art and activism, Neustetter has produced artworks, projects, performances and installations across Africa, Europe, America and Asia. Searching for a balance between poetic form and asking critical questions, his media fluctuate in response to concept and context. His ideas often circle the intersection of art, science, and technology in an attempt to find new perspectives on his creative process.
As artistic director, facilitator, researcher, and strategist to various creative industry areas, he finds himself building opportunities and networks that develop interest beyond his personal artistic practice into seeking entrepreneurial and alternatively cultural ecosystems through his 20-year collaboration with Stephen Hobbs as The Trinity Session.
Marcus' website is: https://marcusneustetter.com.
Some fun video links to get to know Marcus' work and ideas:
Seeking Dialogue and Unfolding Meaning
Leonardo Laser - Paris (March 2022)
Shedding Light on South Africa's Dark History
An interview by Jane O’Brien, filmed by Allen McGreevey, edited by Joni Mazer-Field, produced by Mat Morrison.
BBC News (January 2016)
Lead the Way
Moon Gallery - Artist Talk (April 2021)
Moments of Inspiration and Playful Interventions
TEDxJohannesburg (January 2010)
Art, Place, and Dislocation in the 21st Century City
Creative Time Summit - New York (2013)
ZKM - Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe
Artist Talk: Digital Imaginaries - Africas in Production (November 2018)
Erosion Performance - Eyewitness News
6th Annual "Infecting the City" Arts Festival - Cape Town (March 2013)
Artist Presentation
World Technology Summit, New York (2015)
Yogi and Marcus, together with artist Bronwyn Lace and curator Basak Senova, are the arts & science collective The ZoNE, which operates out of coffee houses and various academic/artistic institutions in Vienna.
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The authors acknowledge funding from the John Templeton Foundation (Project ID: 62581), and would like to thank the co-leader of the project, Prof. Tarja Knuuttila, and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Vienna for hosting the project of which this book is a central part.
Disclaimer: everything we write and present here is our own responsibility. All mistakes are ours, and not the funders’ or our hosts’ and collaborators'.
Disclaimer: everything we write and present here is our own responsibility. All mistakes are ours, and not the funders’ or our hosts’ and collaborators'.
