Francis Heylighen

Francis Heylighen is a Research Professor at the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), where he directs the transdisciplinary Center Leo Apostel and leads the Evolution, Complexity and Cognition research group. He is also affiliated with the Department of History, Art and Philosophy (HARP), teaching courses such as Complexity and Evolution, Mind, Brain & Body, and Effective Thinking to philosophy students. His work spans cybernetics, complex systems theory, and the concept of the Global Brain, integrating insights from physics, computer science, and philosophy.

• Research Focus: Emergence of intelligent organization through self-organization, stigmergy, and distributed cognition
• Key Projects: Principia Cybernetica Project, Global Brain Institute, and computational models of collective intelligence
• Contributions: Coined the mathematical foundations of the Global Brain concept, developed Challenge Propagation theory for distributed intelligence, and advanced Chemical Organization Theory for modeling autopoietic systems

His publications (over 200) and Google Scholar citations (14,000+ with H-index 59) reflect his interdisciplinary impact across evolutionary systems, philosophy of technology, and complexity science. He has received biographical listings in Who's Who and a 2015 Outstanding Technology Contribution Award from the Web Intelligence Consortium.