Kevin Lala

Kevin Lala is Professor of Behavioural and Evolutionary Biology at the University of St Andrews, and prior to that held positions at UCL, UC Berkeley and Cambridge Universities. His principle academic interests are in the general area of animal behaviour and evolution, with a specific focus on: (i) animal social learning, innovation and intelligence, (ii) niche construction, inclusive inheritance and the extended evolutionary synthesis, and (iii) human evolution, particularly the evolution of cognition. He has published c. 300 scientific articles on these topics, been the recipient of more than £17m in grant income, and authored 12 books, including Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony. How Culture Made the Human Mind (Princeton UP 2017), and Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution (with John Odling-Smee and Marc Feldman, Princeton UP, 2003). Laland is an Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.