Participants

Paulo is a biologist focused on understanding ecological patterns as the result of interacting components of ecological and socio-ecological systems. He views statistical, computational, and mathematical models as hypotheses that enable us to inquiry nature. This, in turn, informs the creation of new models in a dialectical process. His primary research centers on interacting populations, exploring dynamics such as consumer-resource and competition relationships. Paulo is also interested in the role that models play in shaping ecological theory.

Undergraduate studies in Biological Sciences at São Paulo University (Brazil), with Master and PhD in Experimental Psychology at São Paulo University. Visiting professor at Saint Andrews University (Scotland, 2016). I have been a scientific researcher for 10 years at Butantan Institute (São Paulo - Brazil), a professor at the Catholic University (PUC - São Paulo) and now I am a full professor at the Federal University of Bahia for more than 10 years. I am associated to two Graduate Studies Programs (Ecology, and Biodiversity and Evolution), were I have either acted as a coordinator (Biodiversity and Evolution) or as part of the administration board (Ecology). I have also been the president of the Brazilian Society of Ethology, and my main research areas are behavioural plasticity, extended cognition, extended evolutionary synthesis, animal personality and social behaviour.

Keely is a writer and communications professional who has worked with organizations that include the UK Prime Minister’s press office, social enterprises, equalities charities and a national television channel. She has two Bachelor of Arts degrees from Brown University and a Master of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Westminster.

Vijay has a PhD in physics from the Indian Institute of Science. He spent a few years as a postdoc at the Max-Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems and the Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany. He has been on the faculty of the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru since 2015. Vijay's research interests are broadly in the physics of living systems. He is, in particular, fascinated by morphogenetic processes during development and has worked on understanding mechanobiological patterns in active materials. He is keen to understand the coupling between active mechanical forces, regulatory biochemistry and the geometry of shapes in cells and tissues. He is a recipient of the Ramalingaswami re-entry fellowship by the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India and is also the head of a Max-Planck partner group in Biological Physics at ICTS-TIFR.

Susanna Kümmell, a paleontologist at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (University Witten/Herdecke, Germany), studied geology/paleontology and Waldorf education and is working about the evolution of synapsids from the Permian to the End of the Cretaceous. A special focus are the evolution of synapsid manus and pes, anatomical trends and the animal's locomotion. This approach is taken as a basis to study evolutionary patterns of heterochrony, probable processes of plasticity and trends in autonomy during the Permian and Mesozoic.

Anne is an Administrative Specialist with decades of experience in academia and the private sector.

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.

My name is Clarissa Machado Pinto Leite, I am a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution (Brazil). I was trained in ecology but my current research branching out into social sciences and it is related to inter- and transdisciplinary practices. I hold a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences (2006), a master’s degree in Ecology and Biomonitoring (2010), and a doctorate in Ecology (2016) from the Federal University of Bahia. My doctoral thesis had as central theme the occurrence of biodiversity thresholds in Atlantic Forest and was associated with a project on effects of the reduction of vegetation cover and historical biogeography on extinction thresholds. My main research interests are: Theoretical and Applied Ecology, Inter- and Transdisciplinary Practices, and Science Education Research.