C. Athena Aktipis
Cooperation and Social Evolution Across Domains
Cooperation theory and evolutionary modeling can be applied to diverse phenomena, from human altruism to the behavior of cancer cells. My work in cooperation theory has demonstrated that simple rules can underlie the evolution and maintenance of cooperation (as exemplified by the Walk Away strategy). I apply my knowledge and background in cooperation theory and evolutionary modeling in several practical domains including resource management, institutional design, medical decision making and cancer biology. I also use evolutionary modeling to improve our understanding of the social and spatial dynamics underlying cancer progression.
Current Affiliations
Arizona State University, Department of Psychology
Research Scientist (2011)
University of California, San Francisco, Center for Evolution and Cancer
Research Scientist
Director of Human and Social Evolution Area
University of Arizona, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Post-doctoral Fellow (2008-present)
Arizona State University, Decision Center for a Desert City
Consultant (2009-present)
Past Affiliations
University of Pennsylvania, Psychology Department
Adjunct professor (2009-2010), MA, PhD, Psychology (2003-2008)
Portland State University, Systems Science Department
Developed and taught Agent-Based Simulation course (2002-2003)
Economic Science Laboratory, University of Arizona
Visiting scholar (1999)
Advocates for Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics
Instructor in public and private schools (1999-2003)
Reed College, Department of Psychology
B.A., Psychology (1998-2002)
News
February 3, 2012: Read Athena’s new paper, Dispersal Evolution in Neoplasms, in the cover article of Cancer Prevention Research.
January 1, 2012: Hear Athena’s talk “Beyond Reciprocity and Kin-Selection” in the Evolution and Extravagant Altruism talk series at the University of Michigan on January 9th.
November 17, 2011: Cancer researchers are Overlooking Evolution; read our analysis of the last 6 decades of therapeutic resistance research in today’s PLoS One.
August 30, 2011: The 2011 Evolution and Cancer Conference was featured in Nature Medicine. Also read our report, The Self-ish Cell from Evolution and Medicine Review.
June 11, 2011: Hear Dr. Aktipis speak about the frontiers of cooperation theory at the symposium The Theory of Cooperation in Adelboden, Switzerland August 11-13.
May 23, 2011: Join leading human and social evolution researchers applying their expertise to cancer in the Human and Social Evolution Area of the Center for Evolution and Cancer at UCSF, directed by Athena Aktipis.
April 7, 2011: Carlo Maley and Athena Aktipis launch the Center for Evolution and Cancer at UCSF. Join us for the first biannual conference from June 3-5 at UCSF, featuring the leaders in the field. Register and view the program here.
January 11, 2011: Read about risk-pooling and cooperation among the Maasai in Athena’s paper, Risk-Pooling and Herd Survival in this month’s issue of Human Ecology.
November 19, 2010: Check out this month’s issue of Adaptive Behavior for Athena’s new paper, Positive Assortment for Peer Review.
August 27, 2010: Read about entrainment and coordinated rhythmic movement in Athena’s new paper, The Ecology of Entrainment, published in this month’s issue of Music Perception.
July 1, 2010: Read Athena Aktipis’s book review of Why We Cooperate by Michael Tomasello.
March 3, 2010: Read Athena Aktipis’s commentary about Psychological Barriers to Evolutionary Thinking in Medicine In Evolution and Medicine Review.
November 19, 2009: Athena Aktipis is an invited speaker at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Evolutionary Preconference in Las Vegas on January 28.
September 2, 2009: See Athena Aktipis talk about the implications of the Walk Away strategy for the evolution of cooperation at UCLA's Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture on the web or download the talk from iTunes U.
June 30, 2009: Athena Aktipis is giving a Plenary talk about her work on the Walk Away strategy at the European Social Simulation Association, September 14-18.
May 12, 2009: Athena Aktipis's interactive learning tools are featured in David Sloan Wilson's blog at the Huffington Post. Wilson says: "Athena's teaching method gives students a visceral feel for the generality of multilevel selection... William D. Hamilton, the legendary founder of inclusive fitness theory (dubbed kin selection by John Maynard Smith), required several years and lots of math to reach the same conclusion."
Contact
aktipis[at]asu.edu
