Click here to view my CV, including full publication and presentation lists.  See also my page on the Walk Away strategy.

Selected Presentations

Plenary address, European Social Simulation Association Conference, 2009: 
The simplicity of cooperation: Conditional movement rules promote cooperation 

Invited talk,  UCLA Center for Behavior Evolution and Culture, 2009:
Walking Away from the Haystack:
Conditional movement favors the evolution of
cooperation in groups  

Invited talk, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University 2009:  
Social norms and simple rules: Agent-based models of cooperation

Invited talk, Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity, ASU, 2009:
Walking Away from the Haystack: How conditional movement favors the evolution
of cooperation.full CV

Invited Talk, Principles of Repurposing, Santa Fe Institute, 2008:
Decentralized Redesign: Insights from principles in the evolution of cooperation

Computational Research

Cognitive Decision Rules Underlying Cooperation
What simple cognitive rules can lead to the promotion and maintenance of cooperation in populations of interacting social agents?

Aktipis, C.A. (in prep). Is cooperation viable in highly mobile organisms?  Walk Away strategy favors the evolution of cooperation in groups.

Aktipis, C.A. (under review, Politics and the Life Sciences).  The simplicity of cooperation: Conditional movement and the origns of cooperation. [download] 

Aktipis, C.A. 2008. When to Walk Away and when to stay: Cooperation evolves when agents can leave unproductive partners and groups.  Dissertation.  [download]

Aktipis, C.A. 2006. Recognition memory and the evolution of cooperation: How simple strategies succeed in an agent-based world. Adaptive Behavior, 14, 239-247.  [download]

Aktipis, C.A. 2004. Know when to walk away: Contingent movement and the evolution of cooperation. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 231(2), 249-260. [download]

Aktipis, C.A, Fernandez-Duque, E.. (in prep). Parental investment without kin recognition: Simple rules for parent-offspring behavior.

Aktips, C.A., Pepper, J. W. (in prep). Do we need complex cognition for the evolution of cooperation?  Implications of conditional movement.

The Evolution of Multicellularity and Emergence of Cancer
Can we apply general evolutionary and ecologial principles to the understanding the dynamics of cancer progression?

Aktips, C.A., Pepper, J. W. (under review). Somatic cell selection and cancer malignancy: Resource depletion favors cell motility. [download]

General Models of Social Behavior and Agent-Environment Interaction
Interactions with the physical and social world are based on fundamental principles that can be applied at many different levels, from cells to armies.   The goal of this project is to formalize these principles and program them into agent-based simulations.

Aktipis, C.A. (in prep).  A SIMPLE (Simulation of agent Interaction through Movement and Production in a Local Environment) model for the evolution of cooperation, exploitation and social dispersal. [download dissertation, based on Chapter 1]

Emergent Spatial Dynamics, Information Processing and Evolutionary Feedback
How do information processing abilities change social and spatial dynamics in ways that can influence selection on behaviors?

Aktipis, C.A. (submitted). Walking Away from the Haystack: Conditional movement favors the evolution of cooperation in groups. [download]

Aktipis, C.A. (in prep).  The individual in group selection: How responsive movement shapes the forces of selection.   [download dissertation, based on Chapter 4]

Aktipis, C.A. (in prep). Contingent movement and benefit transmission: Information processing and signaling in the evolution of cognition and social behavior.   [download Chapter 5]

Theoretical Work 

Modularity, Self-Deception and Social Cognition
Does our sense of self function as a Social Cognitive Interface (SCI), allowing us to leverage information and social value? 

Kurzban, R.; Aktipis, C. A. 2007. Modularity and the social mind: Are Psychologists too self-ish? Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(2), 131-149. [download]

Kurzban, R. O.; Aktipis, C. A. 2006. Modular minds, multiple motives. Shaller, A; Simpson, J & Kenrick, D. (Eds.) Evolution and Social Psychology, 39-53. New York: Psychology Press.
[purchase book]

Aktipis, C. A. 2000. An evolutionary perspective on consciousness: The role of emotion, theory of mind and self-deception. The Harvard Brain: Journal of Mind, Brain and Behavior, 7, 29-34. [link to article]

Assortment as a Framework for Models of Cooperation
There is great disagreement about the fundamental processes supporting the evolution of cooperation.  I propose that a 2x2 framework of spatial/temporal assortment and passive/active assortment provides a concise and well-structured approach for categorizing models of cooperation.

Aktipis, C.A. (submitted).  Assortment in space and time: A novel framework for the evolution of cooperation.   [download]

Multilevel Selection and Social Behavior/Cognition 
Are there behaviors and decision making systems that have been shaped by selection at multiple levels of organization?

Kurzban, R.; Aktipis, C. A. 2007. On detecting the footprints of multilevel selection. Gangestad, S. W. & J. A. Simpson (Eds.) Evolution of Mind: Fundamental Questions and Controversies. New York: Guilford, 226-232. [download]

Aktipis, C. A. 2000.  The effect of behavioral assortment on selection dynamics: Externalities, information processing and subjective commitment.  Eilis Boudreau and Carlo Maley, eds., Proceedings of the Artificial Life VII Workshops, 90-93.  [download]

Other Papers

Aktipis, C. A.; Kurzban, R.O. 2004. Is Homo economicus extinct? Vernon Smith, Daniel Kahneman and the Evolutionary Perspective. Evolutionary Psychology and Economic Theory, Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol 7. [download]

Wakeland, W.W.; Gallaher, E.J; Macovsky, L.M.; Aktipis, C. A. 2004.  A comparison of system dynamics and agent based simulation applied to the study of cellular receptor dynamics. 37th Annual Conference of the Hawaii International Complex System Society, January 2004.[download]