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I'm a historian and philosopher of science and technology with broader interests in philosophy and its history. I'm based at the TU Darmstadt (where I teach as Privatdozent and I'm P.I. of the project supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) “Hybrid Systems, Bionics, and the Circulation of Morphological Knowledge in the Second Half of the 20th Century and the Early 21st Century”). Futhermore, I'm also member of the Junge Akademie | Mainz - the Young Academy of the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz, fellow of the Johanna Quandt Young Academy as well as associate member at the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«.

During the winter semester 2023/2024, I will be substitute professor (Vertretungsprofessor (W3)) for "philosophy of culture" at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg.

My research focuses on the history and philosophy of biology and technology and their hybridization from the nineteenth century to the present. I'm particularly interested in the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology, morphology, bio-inspired and engineering-oriented disciplines (such as robotics, biorobotics, biofabrication, 4D printing, synthetic biology, bionics, bio-inspired architecture), AI, and paleontology as well as in the history and philosophy of technosciences. At the same time, I'm also working on classical philosophical topics (I work on the philosophy of the 18th to 21st century, especially on: Kant, Herbart, Lotze, Husserl, Neo-Kantianism, Phenomenology and Neo-Empiricism, as well as on the philosophy of culture and philosophical anthropology - see my research interest and publications).

I did my Habilitation (venia legendi for "Philosophy"- awarded in 2022) at the Technical University of Darmstadt, where I am now teaching philosophy as well as history and philosophy of science and technology. Previously, I did my Ph.D. in philosophy at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Heidelberg (awarded in 2015) and was pre-doc at the MPIWG.

I am currently working on two book projects on the history and philosophy of robotics, bionics and biorobotics. The first book is simply titled "Biorobotik" (biorobotics). It will be published in spring 2024 by Junius Verlag, zur Einführung. The second one will be in english and will be about the philosophical grammar of the bio-technical object –drop me a line,  if you want to hear more. Preliminary results can be found in the following papers (link1, link2, link3). 

In 2023, together with Kevin Liggieri (TU Darmstadt) and Olivier Del Fabbro (ETH Zurich), I wrote Technikphilosophie Neue Perspektiven für das 21. Jahrhundert (Philosophy of technology New perspectives for the 21st century). In it, I analyze how central philosophical concepts (such as complexity, intelligence, globalization, environment, body, life) have not only been radically changed by new technologies, but have also become fundamental to our digital world of living and working.

In 2022, I published two books. In the first one, The Architecture of Evolution: The Science of Form in Twentieth-Century Evolutionary Biology (University of Pittsburgh Press 2022),  I narrate the neglected contributions of the science of form (morphology) to the recent development of evolutionary biology—and in particular, to the field of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). I analyze how biologists, architects, and engineers cooperated to understand form's constraints and morphogenesis (see the reviewes in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, The British Journal for the History of Science).

In the second book titled Entgrenzung. Die Biologisierung der Technik und die Technisierung der Biologie (Dissolution of Boundaries: On the Biologization of Technology and the Technologization of Biology) published in German for Meiner Verlag - Blaue Reihe, I examine recent developments in bio-technological disciplines such as bionics, biorobotics, and bio-inspired architecture. Through a series of case studies and by combining history of science and philosophy of science and technology, I analyze the premises and outcomes of this dissolution of boundaries during the 20th and 21st centuries - see the reviews in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung -  FAZ and in the Spektrum der Wissenschaft.

I have published widely in international journals such as Isis, History of Science, Perspectives on Science, Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, Journal of the History of Biology, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, NTM, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, etc. 

In 2022,  I received the Athene Preis Gute Lehre 2022 (prize for outstanding teaching link) at the TU Darmstadt. In 2017, I was awarded the Everett Mendelsohn Prize (link to the prize) for the best article published in Journal of the History of Biology during the previous three years. In 2020, I won honorable mention from the Italian Society of the History of Science for my paper published in History of Science (see also my publications and ongoing activities).

In early 2024, I will be invited visiting scientist at the Cluster of Excellence Living, Adaptive and Energy-autonomous Materials Systems (livMatS - University of Freiburg).

During the 2023, I was visiting professor at the Institute of bio engineering in the school of engineering Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland (Biorobotics Laboratory (BioRob) - EPFL) and at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, where I taught on philosophy of science, technology and culture.

In August and September 2021, I was visiting scholar at The BioRobotics Institute - Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, working on hybrid systems.

From January to April 2020, I was visiting scholar at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and visiting fellow at Clare Hall Cambridge. Visiting supported by the Ernst Ludwig Mobility Grant.

In 2019,  I was visiting scholar at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. 

For a small selection of my interviews/media on me, click hier.

If you want to contact me, please send me an email to 

marco.tamborini(at)tu-darmstadt.de