My principle academic interests are in the general area of animal behaviour and evolution, with a specific focus on animal social learning, cultural evolution and niche construction. I am engaged in empirical studies of animal social learning and innovation, including experimental work with fish, birds, non-human primates and humans. This laboratory work is complemented by theoretical investigations of the role of niche construction in evolution, the diffusion dynamics of learned behaviour and the co-evolution of genes and culture throughout human evolution.

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

President of the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association.

Editor, Animal Behaviour, 2005-2008.

Member of The Royal Society’s Dorothy Hodgkin fellowship scheme selection panel, 2004-2008.

Core member of EU-funded research network CULTAPTATION (NEST-PATH-043434).

Principal Investigator of the AHRC Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity (CECD), UCL.

Principal Investigator on four current research council grants, with a combined value of nearly £3 million.

Recipient of ERC Advanced Grant (2,128,195 Euros)

Past recipient of a Royal Society University Research Fellowship, as well as postdoctoral fellowships from the Human Frontier Science Programme Organization and the BBSRC.

Research Group: Ms Nicola Atton (EU), Ms Alice Cowie (EU), Mr Lewis Dean (EU), Ms Laurel Fogarty (BBSRC), Dr William Hoppitt (BBSRC), Dr Anne Kandler (AHRC), Ms Katherine Meacham (EU), Mr Thomas Morgan (EU), Dr Luke Rendell (EU), Dr Mike Webster (NERC), Ms Birgit Weinman (NERC).