Robin Henry

Engineering biology

// now

I'm an electrical engineer and computer scientist turned wannabe synthetic biologist. These days, I'm mostly interested in ML, RL, and traditional control applied to biological questions.

I'm currently doing a PhD/DPhil in Engineering Biology under the supervision of Jean-Baptiste Lugagne and Harrison Steel at Oxford.

I'm also an active member of Nucleate UK, advisor to the Oxford iGEM team, and developer of open-source research and experimental tools (#software).

// before

Startups

Academia

  • M.Eng. in Electronics and Computer Science @ Edinburgh (2016 - 2021)
  • Master's Thesis @ EPFL (2021)
  • Full-year exchange @ Caltech (2018-2019)
  • Undergraduate research @ Liege, Belgium (2017-2020)

// software

Tools & libraries

  • myriad-jax [code] — JAX-native platform for massively parallel control, system identification, and active learning of uncertain, stochastic systems.
  • gym-anm [code] [paper] — Reinforcement learning environments for active network management in electricity distribution systems.

Paper code

  • pqn-control-cdc2025 [code] [paper] — Control of a bi-stable genetic system via parallelised reinforcement learning (CDC 2025).

// more context

I grew up in Belgium and have lived in Edinburgh (UK), California (US), Oxford (UK), and (very briefly) Australia since then.

I spend a fair amount of time in startup spaces and love finding out what cool stuff people are up to and why they do it.

Away from a computer/lab, you'll likely find me hiking/camping in some woods or mountains, playing sports, or hanging out with friends.

// contact

Always happy to have a chat: robin.henry@reuben.ox.ac.uk