Phil Husbands

Phil Husbands is a computer scientist at the University of Sussex who helped originate evolutionary robotics and, with the neuroscientist Michael O'Shea, introduced GasNets, neural networks modulated by diffusing virtual gases. After a physics degree at Manchester, AI diagnostic work at British Gas and a PhD at Edinburgh on coevolutionary genetic algorithms, they joined Sussex in 1989 as an AI lecturer. With Dave Cliff and Inman Harvey, they published "Explorations in Evolutionary Robotics" in 1993 and, with other colleagues, "Evolutionary Robotics: The Sussex Approach" in 1997, and in 1996 they co-founded the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR). They became a professor in 2001, co-edited The Mechanical Mind in History in 2008, and wrote the 2021 Oxford University Press book Robots: What Everyone Needs to Know. Since 2025, they are Emeritus Professor of AI at Sussex.

Now at: University of Sussex
Born: 1961
Works: 319
Citations: 6,439
h-index: 37
Badges: Loyal

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

1980s

From physics to AI diagnostics

They earn a BSc in physics at Manchester University in 1982 and an MSc in information systems engineering at South Bank Polytechnic in 1985. They then develop AI-based diagnostic systems for British Gas at its engineering research station.
1986–1989

An Edinburgh PhD, then Sussex

Edinburgh University recruits them as a research assistant on an AI in engineering project, and between 1986 and 1989 they also do a PhD on coevolutionary genetic algorithms applied to generalised planning and scheduling. They come to Sussex in 1989 as a lecturer in AI in the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences (COGS). Margaret Boden, the school's Dean, chairs the appointment panel, and her 1977 book Artificial Intelligence and Natural Man had first drawn them to the field.
1992–1997

Evolutionary robotics at Sussex

With colleagues in COGS, they co-found the Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems group (EASy) in 1992 and head it until 2013. With Dave Cliff and Inman Harvey, they publish "Explorations in Evolutionary Robotics" in 1993 and "Circle in the round: State space attractors for evolved sighted robots" in 1995, and in 1997 they coauthor "Evolutionary Robotics: The Sussex Approach" with Harvey, Cliff, Thompson and Jakobi. They are among the originators of the field of evolutionary robotics.
1996–2012

Co-founding the CCNR

In 1996, they and neuroscientist Michael O'Shea co-found the cross-school Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR) at Sussex, which explores the interface between neuroscience and computer science and engineering, and they jointly direct it until 2012. With O'Shea, they introduce GasNets, artificial neural networks that use diffusing virtual gases as modulators, inspired by nitric oxide signalling in real brains. The 1998 paper "Better Living through Chemistry: Evolving GasNets for Robot Control" appears in Connection Science.
1999–2011

Professor of computer science and AI

From 1999 to 2009, they are Director of Graduate Studies in COGS and then in Informatics. They become Professor of Computer Science and AI in 2001, and from 2009 to 2011 they serve as Director of Research in Informatics.
2008–2014

Co-editing two MIT Press books

With Owen Holland and Michael Wheeler, they co-edit The Mechanical Mind in History (MIT Press, 2008), in which scientists, artists, historians and philosophers discuss the quest to understand intelligent behavior in natural and artificial systems as a wholly mechanical process. In 2014, they co-edit The Horizons of Evolutionary Robotics, also from MIT Press, with Patricia Vargas, Ezequiel Di Paolo and Inman Harvey.
2014–2025

Research Professor of AI

From 2014 to 2025, they are Research Professor of AI in Sussex's Department of Informatics. In 2021, Oxford University Press publishes their book Robots: What Everyone Needs to Know, which uses a question-and-answer format to introduce robotics, from its history and technology to ethics and the future of robots.
Since 2025

Emeritus Professor of AI

Since 2025, they are Emeritus Professor of AI at Sussex, in the School of Engineering and Informatics. In 2026, they coauthor "Is Every Cognitive Phenomenon Computable?" in the journal Mathematics.