Robert Axtell created SUGARSCAPE with Joshua Epstein. Robert Axtell is today Professor of Economics at George Mason University.

This interview covers the inception of SUGARSCAPE at the Brookings Institution in the early 1990s, locating this project in the broader context of the use of computing for developing an alternative approach to social sciences (which Epstein and Axtell illustrated in their first book Growing Artificial Societies). The conversation also covers Axtell's initial training in engineering, his graduate studies at Carnegie Mellon, the development of SUGARSCAPE, the challenges of interdisciplinary work. Axtell's research work after SUGARSCAPE, contributing to the development of agent-based modelling, is also covered extensively in the interview.

The interview was conducted by Romain Plassard and Francesco Sergi, on behalf of the Oral Histories of Economics project.

Access to the full interview