Professional Preparation:

• Postdoc in Philosophy and Computer Science, Center for Studies in Language and Information (CSLI), Stanford University, 1985-86.
• Ph.D. in Philosophy, Brown University, 1981.
• B.A. in Mathematics, University of California at Santa Barbara, 1973.

Appointments:

• Full Professor (2006-present), University of Colorado, Philosophy Department, Boulder, CO 80309
• Associate Professor (1993-2006), University of Colorado, Philosophy Department, Boulder, CO 80309.
• Visiting Researcher (2002-2003), Centro de Astrobiologia, Madrid, Spain.
• Exchange Professor (1998-99), Australian National University, Philosophy Department, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
• Assistant Professor (1986-1993), University of Colorado, Philosophy Department, Boulder, CO 80309.
• Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy and Computer Science (1985-86), Center for The Study of Language and Information (CSLI), Ventura Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.
• Software Engineer (1984-85), Motion Analysis Corporation, Santa Rosa, CA, 95401.
• Assistant Professor (1981-84), Wheaton College, Department of Philosophy, Norton, MA 02766.
• Instructor (1979-81), Wheaton College, Department of Philosophy, Norton, MA 02766.
• Graduate Student (1975-81), Brown University, Philosophy Department, Providence, R. I. 02903.
• Systems Programmer (1973-74), Culler-Harrison, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA.

Significant Publications:

Selected articles:

• Cleland, Carol E. (forthcoming). “Epistemological issues in the study of microbial life: alternative biospheres,” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences.
• Cleland, Carol E. (forthcoming). “Philosophical issues in natural history, including philosophy of biology and geology,” in Tucker, A. (ed), Blackwell Companions to Philosophy: A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography. Oxford: Blackwell Pub.
• Cleland, Carol E. (in press). “The Church-Turing Thesis: A last vestige of a failed mathematical program, ” in Olszewksi, A., Wolenski, J. and R. Janusz (eds.), Church’s Thesis after Seventy Years. Berlin: Ontos Verlag.
• Cleland, Carol E. & Christopher Chyba (in press). “Does ‘life’ have a definition?,” in Sullivan Baross (eds.), Planets and Life: The Emerging Science of Astrobiology, Ch. 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Cleland, Carol E. & Shelley Copey (2005). “The Possibility of Alternative Microbial Life on Earth,” International Journal of Astrobiology 4 (2005), pp. 165-173.
• Cleland, Carol E. (2004). “The Concept of Computability,” Theoretical Computer Science 317/1-3, pp. 209-225.
• Cleland, Carol E. & Christopher Chyba (2002). “Defining ‘Life’,” Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere 32(4), pp. 387-93.
• Cleland, Carol E. (2002). “Methodological and Epistemic Differences Between Historical Science and Experimental Science,” Philosophy of Science 69, pp. 474-496.
• Cleland, Carol E. (2002). “On Effective Procedures,” in Carol E. Cleland (guest editor) Minds and Machines (special volume: Effective Procedures) 12, pp. 159-179.
• Cleland, Carol E. (2001). “Historical science, experimental science, and the scientific method,” Geology 29, pp. 987-990.
• Cleland, Carol E. (2001). “Recipes, Algorithms, and Programs," Minds and Machines 11, pp. 219-237.
• Cleland, Carol E. (1995). "Effective Procedures and Computable Functions,” Minds and Machines 5, pp. 9-23.
• Cleland, Carol E. (1993). "Is the Church-Turing Thesis True?," Minds and Machines 3, pp. 283-312.
• Cleland, Carol E. (1991). "On the Individuation of Events,” Synthese, Vol 86, pp. 229-254.
• (Reprinted in R. Casati & A. Varzi (eds.) Events. Dartmouth 1996, pp. 373-400).
• Cleland, Carol E. (1990). "The Difference Between Real Change and Mere Cambridge Change," Philosophical Studies, Vol 60, pp. 257-280.
• Cleland, Carol E. (1985). "Causality, Chance and Weak Non- Supervenience," American Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 22, pp. 287-298.
• Cleland, Carol E. (1984). "Space: An Abstract System of Non- Supervenient Relations," Philosophical Studies, Vol. 46, pp. 19-40.

Volumes:

• Cleland, Carol E. (forthcoming). The Quest for a Universal Theory of life: Searching for life as we don’t know it (under contract with Cambridge University Press).
• Bedau, Mark & Carol E. Cleland, Editors (in progress). The Nature of Life: Classic and Contemporary Readings.
• Cleland, Carol E., Guest Editor (2002). Effective Procedures, (special issue of) Minds and Machines 12.

Significant Presentations:

• “Answering the Question ‘What is life?’” (invited). AAAS, Feb 18, 2006.
• “Epistemic and methodological differences between historical science and classic experimental science” (invited). Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Minnesota, October 21, 2005.
• “What is life?” (invited). ISHPSSB Bi-Annual Meeting, Guelph, Canada, July 16, 2005.
• “Answering the Question ‘What is life?’” (invited). Harvard University, Center for Astrobiology and the Origin of Life, May 23, 2005.
• “Searching for a General Theory of Living Systems” (invited presenter). Dibner Seminar in the History and Philosophy of Biology, MBL, Woods Hole, MA, May 20, 2005.
• “Defining ‘Life’” (invited). Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, March 25, 2005.
• “Why it is a mistake to define ‘life’” (invited). ALIFE9 (Ninth Conference on Artificial Life), Boston, MA, Sept. 12, 2004.
• “Rethinking the justification of phylogenetic methods” (invited). The A. Watson Armour III Spring Symposium: Systematics at a Crossroads Again: Biological and Philosophical Arguments in Contemporary Phylogenetics, Chicago, May 10, 2003.
• “The Concept of Computability” (invited). American Mathematical Society (Special Session: “Beyond classical Boundaries of computability”), May 4, 2003.
• “Defining ‘life’’ (invited). Inaugural Ceremonies, Centro de Astrobiologia, Madrid, Spain, January 16, 2003.
• “Defining ‘life’” (invited). ISSOL’02 (13^th International Conference on the Origin of Life). Oaxaca, Mexico, July 4, 2002.
• "What is Life?" (invited). AAAS workshop on the nature of life, Washington D.C, March 5, 2001.
• “Effective Procedures and Causal Processes” (invited). Hypercomputation Workshop, London, England, May 24, 2000.
• “Recipes, Algorithms, and Programs” (invited). Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Dec. 28, 1999.
• "On the Nature of Computation" (invited). Symposium on Computation, Society for Philosophy and Psychology, San Francisco State University, June 1996.
• "Response to Horsten's "Can Turing Machines Bake Cakes?" (invited). Midwestern Division of the American Philosophical Association, April 29, 1995.
• "The Covenience of Spatial Relations" (invited). Symposium on Symmetrical Universes, Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, March 30, 1995.
• "The Church/Turing Thesis: Procedures, Processes and Causation" (invited). University of California (Davis), Nov. 22, 1991.
• "Space as an Abstract System of Non-Supervenient Relations" (invited). Symposium on Space and Time, University of California at Davis, June 6, 1985

SYNERGISTIC ACTIVITIES:

I am a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute and a Co-Investigator in the Center for Astrobiology at the University of Colorado, Boulder (1998-present).   I am Chair of the Philosophy Department's Committee on the History and Philosophy of Science.   I was a Visiting Researcher at the Centro de Astrobiologia in Madrid, Spain (11/2002-4/2003).   I teach courses in the philosophy of science to undergraduates.   I also teach three advanced interdisciplinary courses in philosophy of science, one (“Philosophy of Astrobiology”) directed at advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students in philosophy and science, and the other two directed at graduate students in philosophy and science (“Graduate Seminar on life” and “Graduate Seminar on Historical Science”).   In addition, I frequently give guest lectures in graduate and undergraduate seminars in the sciences (geology, biology, geography, chemistry).   For several years I have given lectures on the methodology of science to graduate students in the School of Journalism's program in science journalism.