Angelo is an artist, biologist and space systems researcher. In 2009 he co-founded SEAD (Space Ecologies Art and Design), an international transdisciplinary collective of artists, scientists, engineers, and activists. Its goal is to reshape the future through critical inquiry and hands-on experimentation. Biomodd is one of their most well-known art projects and consists of a worldwide series of interactive art installations in which computers coexist with internal living ecosystems. For the last ten years, he has been collaborating with the European Space Agency’s MELiSSA program on biological life support for space. In 2013 he became crew commander of the first NASA-funded HI-SEAS Mars simulation in Hawai’i. Currently, he works at Delft University of Technology, developing bio-inspired concepts for interstellar exploration. He advises several European space companies, and together with the LDE Center for Sustainability, he connects space technology and horticulture to foster innovation in global food production. He is also preparing a series of art/science experiments on board the International Space Station. Vermeulen has been (guest) faculty at universities across Europe, the US, and Southeast Asia. He is a Senior TED Fellow and was selected in 2017 as one of the Top 5 Tech Pioneers from Belgium by the newspaper De Tijd. His TED Talk about his space-related work has garnered over a million views.

2018 Becomes external advisor for the Netherlands-based space start-up SpaceLife Origin
2018 Starts collaborating with the LDE Center for Sustainability on circular food production
2017 Selected by De Tijd as one of the Top 5 Tech Pioneers from Belgium
2016 Becomes CAO (Chief Art Officer) of Netherlands-based space tech transfer company IPStar
2014-2018 Partners with Vienna-based space architecture company LIQUIFER Systems Group to work on bio-inspired research projects
2013 Crew Commander of HI-SEAS Mission I, a NASA-funded Mars mission simulation on Mauna Loa in Hawai’i
2013 TED Senior Fellow
2012 Initiates Seeker, a worldwide community art project questioning future literacy and creating starship prototypes
2012 Wins the Witteveen+Bos Art+Technology Award
2012 Michael Kalil Endowment for Smart Design Fellow, Parsons, New York, US
2011/2012 Starts PhD research on bio-inspired interstellar exploration, Systems Engineering and Simulation section, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
2011/2013 Member of ESA’s Arts and Science Topical Team (ETTAS)
2011 Artist in residence, HONF, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2010 Artist in residence, Exploratorium, San Francisco, US
2010 TED Fellow
2009/2011 Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Information and Communication Studies, University of the Philippines Open University, Los Baños, Philippines
2009 Co-founds SEAD, an international transdisciplinary network of artists, scientists, engineers and activists
2008/2009 Artist in residence, FoAM, Brussels, Belgium
2008 Artist in residence, Nadine, Brussels, Belgium
2008 Starts Translucent Futures, an artistic research project on the abrasion of civil rights and privacy through digital technologies
2008 Publishes Baudelaire in Cyberspace, a series of dialogues about art, science and digital culture with philosopher Antoon Van den Braembussche
2007 Initiates Biomodd, a worldwide cross-cultural art project in which technology, ecology and community building converge
2007 Artist in residence, The Aesthetic Technologies Lab, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
2005/2007 Film and Video Art studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts DKO, Antwerp, Belgium
2004/2011 Assistant Professor, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, Belgium
2001/2003 Postgraduate studies at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium
1994/1998 Photography studies at the Municipal Academy of Fine Arts, Leuven, Belgium
1993/1998 PhD in ecology and developmental biology, Department of Biology, University of Leuven, Belgium

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