"Why Life?" Workshop
January 27-29, 2014

	Title	Presenter
27 Jan
10:00	Welcome and introduction "Life and the Origin(s) of Life: An Attempt to Frame the Problem(s)	Jim Cleaves
10:40	"Solution-Searching Spatiotemporal Dynamics for Exploring the Origins of Life"	Masashi Aono
11:00	"Life as a form of stability"	Addy Pross
11:00	TBA	Nigel Goldenfeld
11:40	"Are emerging life's initial hurdles fundamentally thermodynamic in character? If so what are they and how might they be surmounted?"	Elbert Branscomb
12:00	Lunch
14:00	Afternoon Session I:"Definitions of Life: How Does Biocentrism Cloud Our View?"	Jon Lindsay
15:30	coffee/tea break
15:45	Afternoon Session II:"The Meaning of Meaning: Information and Semiosis in Biology"	Greg Fournier
28 Jan
10:00	Morning Session: "Can the Origin of Life be Meaningfully Viewed as a Phase Transition?"	Nigel Goldenfeld
12:00	Lunch
14:00	Afternoon Session I:"Modeling the Origins of Life I"	Piet Hut
15:30	coffee/tea break
15:45	Afternoon Session II:"Modeling the Origins of Life II"	Nicholas Guttenberg
18:00	Dinner
29 Jan
10:00	Morning Session: "Darwinian Evolution: Essential or Contingent?"	Addy Pross
12:00	Lunch
13:30	Afternoon Session I:"Ecogenesis vs. Biogenesis"	Eric Smith
14:45	coffee/tea break
16:00	Afternoon Session II: "The role of digital life studies in astrobiology" Round-Table Discussion	Nigel Goldenfeld, Piet Hut, Addy Pross, Eric Smith Discussion Leader: Jim Cleaves

Participants

Elbert Branscomb (University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana);
Jim Cleaves (ELSI/IAS);
Albert Fahrenbach (ELSI/Harvard University);
Greg Fournier (MIT);
Nigel Goldenfeld (University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana);
Nicholas Guttenberg (University of Oregon, Eugene);
Piet Hut (Institute for Advanced Study/ELSI);
Jon Lindsay (UC San Diego);
Addy Pross (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev);
Eric Smith (George Mason University)