It has been almost 20 years, and 20 volumes, since Mark Bedau took on the role of Editor in Chief of Artificial Life. After diligently maintaining the journal day-to-day and steering it strategically over the long term, Mark has decided to retire from this role. He was instrumental in cementing the Artificial Life journal as a dependable and valuable publication venue for research in our field. But also, during his lengthy term, Mark was willing to trust would-be guest editors with the independence to manage their own special issues. He remained consistently keen to innovate and to explore new directions for the journal that capitalised on our field’s inherent multidisciplinarity, curiosity, and diversity.
Mark also led ISAL (International Society for Artificial Life) during the years 2001–2015. In the mid-2000s, he was also Chief Operating Officer of ProtoLife SRL, a Venice-based company investigating the possibilities of wet artificial life,...