Kevin Neville Laland (born 5 October 1962) is an English evolutionary biologist who is Professor of Behavioural and Evolutionary Biology at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. Educated at the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

and

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

, he was a Human Frontier Science Program fellow at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

before joining the University of St Andrews in 2002. He is one of the co-founders of

niche construction Niche construction is the process by which an organism alters its own (or another species') local environment. These alterations can be a physical change to the organism’s environment or encompass when an organism actively moves from one habita ...

theory and a prominent advocate of the

extended evolutionary synthesis The extended evolutionary synthesis consists of a set of theoretical concepts argued to be more comprehensive than the earlier modern synthesis of evolutionary biology that took place between 1918 and 1942. The extended evolutionary synthesis wa ...

(EES). He is a fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

and the

Society of Biology The Royal Society of Biology (RSB), previously called the Society of Biology, is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom created to advance the interests of biology in academia, industry, education, and research. Fo ...

. He has also received a

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

Advanced Grant, a

Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award The Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award was an award made by the Royal Society from 2000 to 2020. It was administered by the Royal Society and jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the UK Office of Science and Technology, to provid ...

, and a

John Templeton Foundation The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a philanthropic organization that reflects the ideas of its founder, John Templeton, who became wealthy via a career as a contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in religious an ...

grant. President of European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association (EHBEA) from 2007 to 2010.

Bibliography

* ''Darwin's Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind'', Princeton University Press, 2017 * ''Social Learning: An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models'', Princeton University Press, 2013, William Hoppitt and Kevin N. Laland * ''Sense and nonsense: Evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour'', Oxford University Press, 2011, Kevin N. Laland and Gillian R. Brown, 2nd edition * ''Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution'', Princeton University Press, 2003, John Odling-Smee, Kevin N. Laland, Marcus W. Feldman * ''Sense and nonsense: Evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour'', Oxford University Press, 2002, Kevin N. Laland and Gillian R. Brown, 1st edition

References

External links

Faculty pageLab page
*
Niche construction resource websiteExtended evolutionary synthesis project website
Living people 1962 births Alumni of University College London Alumni of the University of Southampton Academics of the University of St Andrews British evolutionary biologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of The Society of Biology Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders European Research Council grantees English biologists Extended evolutionary synthesis {{Geneticist-stub