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About

Ben de Lacy Costello is a pioneering researcher whose work spans two fascinating and interconnected frontiers: unconventional chemical computing and neuromorphic systems. His early contributions demonstrated that living chemistry could serve as a computational substrate, most notably through experimental implementations of the Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction — an oscillating chemical system — as a controller for robotic systems. His landmark 2004 studies showed that BZ chemical media could guide mobile robot navigation and control robotic hands in closed-loop experiments, earning over 50 and 28 citations respectively, and establishing him as a key figure in reaction-diffusion computing. Costello's research then evolved toward memristive and neuromorphic computing, where he made equally significant contributions. His 2012 paper on spiking neuroevolutionary networks using memristors as plastic synaptic connections garnered 73 citations — his most influential work — demonstrating that brain-inspired hardware could learn adaptively through evolutionary design. Subsequent papers further refined these memristor-based spiking neural networks, advancing neuromorphic paradigms with biological plausibility and hardware efficiency in mind. Taken together, Costello's body of work represents a remarkably coherent vision: finding nature-inspired solutions — whether chemical or electronic — to the challenges of adaptive, intelligent computation. His research offers enduring insights for students working at the intersection of robotics, unconventional computing, and artificial intelligence.