ASU Interdisciplinary Study of Cooperation Winter School

Arvid  Ågren is an evolutionary biologist studying the causes and consequences of genomic conflicts. He is currently a Wenner-Gren Fellow at Harvard at the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Learn more about Dr. Ågren here.

Gerry Carter is an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University who studies cooperation and social networks in vampire bats. His most recent work tracks the emergence of the first grooming and food-sharing interactions among previously unfamiliar bats. How do strangers eventually choose, develop, and maintain long-term cooperative relationships? You can read more about his research here.

Kathryn Coe, PhD, is a Professor and Lilly Scholar in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Division in the Department of Public Health at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. She has done pioneering theoretical work on the theory of ancestor-descendant conflict, which extends Hamilton's rule, incorporating cultural transmission and parental manipulation into a framework that explains cooperation and conflict in multi-generational families. Her doctoral degree is in cultural anthropology and evolutionary biology. Her research interests are broad, incorporating both chronic disease (breast cancer) and infectious disease (parasite infections, roundworm in particular, in children), and the inter-relationship between culture and health.

Regis Ferrier works at the intersection of ecology and evolution as applied to cooperation. He uses mathematical modeling to understand the evolution of cooperation at the gene, cell, organism and population levels. He also works on life history evolution, the evolution of species interactions; as well as the eco-evolutionary responses of populations, and communities and ecosystems to environmental change. Dr. Ferrier is also developing the CNRS-ENS Ecotron in Paris, in a partnership with Biosphere 2 at the University of Arizona, to promote next-generation large-scale experiments on complex ecological systems under highly controlled environmental conditions.

Jennifer Fewell is a President’s Professor and faculty leader for the Organismal, Integrative and Systems Biology Group in the School of Life Sciences. Her research centers around the organization and evolution of insect societies. She is particularly interested in the topics of work organization and the emergence of the division of labor in social groups. Fewell also studies the roles of self-organization and selection in shaping social cooperation. Learn more about Dr. Fewell here. 

Dr. Fortunato is an Assistant Research Professor at Arizona State University. He is interested in sociobiology and he is working to integrate evolutionary and cancer biology fields to study cancer evolution. He received his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Rice University, Houston, Texas, and a second Ph.D. in Experimental and Clinical Oncology, from University of Florence, Italy. Dr. Fortunato has an international scientific experience acquired in several American and European laboratories. He is working across classical biology field boundaries using various model organisms, cell lines, and clinical cancer specimens both in the laboratory and in the field. He contributed, among other things, to the development of Dictyostelium discoideum as model organism in social evolution, to the building of the first systematic map of genetic interactions for any animal using Caenorhabditis elegans, and to the investigation of the role of ion channels in cancer biology. Currently, he is working on the development of new model organisms in cancer research and sociobiology (Placozoa, sponges, flatworms and comb jellies), and he is working on human breast cancer genetic analysis.

Tamar Kugler is an Associate Professor in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona, Tucson. She uses economic games to look at the role of emotions and trust in cooperation and decision making more generally. She also works on interactive decision-making, group decision-makingand intergroup conflict.

Shade Shutters is a complexity scientist who uses various computational and data-intensive methods to (1) Understand fundamental aspects of social dilemmas across all scales of life; (2) Develop a deeper understanding of social dynamics and complex systems to create solutions to pressing societal issues, particularly in urban systems; and (3) Work with practitioners/policy-makers to design decision tools, implement solutions, and effect change. He is currently a Research Scientist in the Global Security Initiative at ASU. Learn more about Dr. Shutters here. 

Jessica Phillips-Silver is currently an associate researcher in the Department of Neuroscience at Georgetown University. Jessica conducts research on entrainment in music and movement, with interests in typical development as well as groups of individuals who are blind or deaf; tone-deaf or beat-deaf. She has examined what it means to feel the beat in music: how rhythmic entrainment develops in infancy, what defines the musical disorder beat deafness, how sensory deprivation and cortical plasticity impact rhythm perception, and the sensorimotor brain circuit that supports connection and cooperation through feeling the beat. She also studies the development of executive functioning in early childhood and the role of music and rhythm in cooperation and social interaction.

Arunas L Radzvilavicius is a mathematical modeler at the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting researcher at ASU, with degrees in theoretical physics and evolutionary biology. Arunas has worked on theoretical aspects of cooperation in major evolutionary events like the origins of complex cell and multicellularity. He is now investigating altruism, social norms and moral emotions in human societies. Learn more about Dr. Radzvilavicius here.

Joan Silk studies the evolution of social behavior in primates, especially the behavioral and reproductive strategies of female baboons. She recently initiated a comparative study of the structure and function of close social bonds in four baboon species (anubis, hamadryas, gelada, and chacma). In particular, Silk is interested in questions that explicitly link studies of nonhuman primates to humans. Silk is also working with chimpanzees and children to understand the phylogenetic origins and ontogenetic development of prosocial preferences. learn more about Dr. Silk here. 

Roger White is an Assistant Professor in the W. P. Carey School of Business. His studies the incentives and institutions that maintain the viability of markets. He uses big data to investigate fraud and other forms of cheating, as well as the roles of regulation and communication in maintaining cooperation. Learn more about Dr. White here.

Polly Wiessner is a Professor of Anthropology at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, a Research Professor at the University of Utah and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Her recent work has been on the anthropology of the night: how firelight conversations transmit essential information on kinship connections, social networks, sharing and other social institutions to promote cooperation. Her second field site is among the Enga of Papua New Guinea where she has conducted 30 years of ethnohistorical research on exchange, ritual and warfare. She is currently studying the breakdown of traditional cultural institutions with the introduction of new technology and rapid economic change and how the Enga are applying restorative justice based to rebuild communities and maintain harmony through reciprocity. Wiessner has authored, co-authored or edited four books. Learn more about Dr. Wiessner here.