Kevin Lala

Last updated

Kevin Lala
Born
Kevin Neville Lala

(1962-10-05) 5 October 1962 (age 61)
NationalityEnglish
Other namesKevin Laland
Education University College London (Ph.D., 1990)
Alma mater University of Southampton
Known for Niche construction theory
Awards Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award
Scientific career
Fields Behavioral biology
Evolutionary biology
Institutions University of St Andrews
Thesis Social transmission in Norway rats and its implications for evolutionary theory (1990)
Doctoral advisor Henry Plotkin

Kevin Neville Lala (formerly Kevin Neville Laland; born 5 October 1962) [1] [2] is an English evolutionary biologist who is Professor of Behavioural and Evolutionary Biology at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Educated at the University of Southampton and University College London, [3] he was a Human Frontier Science Program fellow at the University of California, Berkeley before joining the University of St Andrews in 2002. He is one of the co-founders of niche construction theory [4] and a prominent advocate of the extended evolutionary synthesis. [5] He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Society of Biology. He has also received a European Research Council Advanced Grant, [6] a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, [7] and a John Templeton Foundation grant. [8] He was the president of the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association from 2007 to 2010 [9] and a former president of the Cultural Evolution Society. [10] Lala is currently an external faculty of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research. [11]

Contents

Cognition and learning

The Lala Lab is primarily focused on animal social learning, innovation, and intelligence, [12] as well as human evolution, particularly the evolution of cognition and culture. [13] Their work lies at the interdisciplinary interface of evolutionary biology, animal behavior, ecology, and psychology. [14]

Niche construction theory

Following John Odling-Smee's attempt in 1988 to formalize the process of niche construction as an evolutionary process, [15] Odling-Smee, Lala, and Marcus W. Feldman developed a theoretical framework – Niche Construction Theory – that models niche construction as an evolutionary process reciprocally interacting with the process of natural selection. [4] [16] This theory has been applied widely across multiple fields, including ecology [17] [18] evolutionary developmental biology, [19] and human and cultural evolution. [20] [21] [22]

Extended evolutionary synthesis

In the mid-2010s, Kevin Lala, Tobias Uller, and colleagues pushed for an extended evolutionary synthesis in a series of high-impact articles. [23] [24] From 2015 to 2018, Uller and Lala led a large international John Templeton Foundation grant to test key hypotheses and assumptions of the extended evolutionary synthesis. [8] [25]

Anti-racism work

Kevin Lala previously served on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion division of the School of Biology as deputy director. [26] He is currently serving as an anti-racism advocate, [27] publishing articles [28] [29] on racism in academia.

Lala changed his name from Laland, stating on his lab website "Lala was my original family name, which my parents anglicized when I was 4, in an attempt to reduce the racism that their children experienced. I may have benefited from my surname being anglicized, but it did not sit right with me that I should still bear that name more than 50 years later. I wish to celebrate my ancestry not hide it. I am proud of my Parsi Indian heritage. I am not going to be intimidated by racists." [30]

Publications

Journal articles

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heredity</span> Passing of traits to offspring from the species parents or ancestor

Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic information of their parents. Through heredity, variations between individuals can accumulate and cause species to evolve by natural selection. The study of heredity in biology is genetics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern synthesis (20th century)</span> Fusion of natural selection with Mendelian inheritance

The modern synthesis was the early 20th-century synthesis of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and Gregor Mendel's ideas on heredity into a joint mathematical framework. Julian Huxley coined the term in his 1942 book, Evolution: The Modern Synthesis. The synthesis combined the ideas of natural selection, Mendelian genetics, and population genetics. It also related the broad-scale macroevolution seen by palaeontologists to the small-scale microevolution of local populations.

<i>The Extended Phenotype</i> 1982 book by Richard Dawkins

The Extended Phenotype is a 1982 book by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, in which the author introduced a biological concept of the same name. The book’s main idea is that phenotype should not be limited to biological processes such as protein biosynthesis or tissue growth, but extended to include all effects that a gene has on its environment, inside or outside the body of the individual organism.

Allele frequency, or gene frequency, is the relative frequency of an allele at a particular locus in a population, expressed as a fraction or percentage. Specifically, it is the fraction of all chromosomes in the population that carry that allele over the total population or sample size. Microevolution is the change in allele frequencies that occurs over time within a population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Lewontin</span> American evolutionary biologist and mathematician (1929–2021)

Richard Charles Lewontin was an American evolutionary biologist, mathematician, geneticist, and social commentator. A leader in developing the mathematical basis of population genetics and evolutionary theory, he applied techniques from molecular biology, such as gel electrophoresis, to questions of genetic variation and evolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolutionary biology</span> Study of the processes that produced the diversity of life

Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life forms on Earth. Evolution holds that all species are related and gradually change over generations. In a population, the genetic variations affect the phenotypes of an organism. These changes in the phenotypes will be an advantage to some organisms, which will then be passed on to their offspring. Some examples of evolution in species over many generations are the peppered moth and flightless birds. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biology emerged through what Julian Huxley called the modern synthesis of understanding, from previously unrelated fields of biological research, such as genetics and ecology, systematics, and paleontology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niche construction</span> Process by which an organism shapes its environment

Niche construction is the process by which an organism alters its own local environment. These alterations can be a physical change to the organism’s environment or encompass when an organism actively moves from one habitat to another to experience a different environment. Examples of niche construction include the building of nests and burrows by animals, and the creation of shade, influencing of wind speed, and alternation of nutrient cycling by plants. Although these alterations are often beneficial to the constructor, they are not always.

In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the population during that process. Thirdly, it is a phenotypic trait or adaptive trait, with a functional role in each individual organism, that is maintained and has evolved through natural selection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Facilitated variation</span>

The theory of facilitated variation demonstrates how seemingly complex biological systems can arise through a limited number of regulatory genetic changes, through the differential re-use of pre-existing developmental components. The theory was presented in 2005 by Marc W. Kirschner and John C. Gerhart.

Dual inheritance theory (DIT), also known as gene–culture coevolution or biocultural evolution, was developed in the 1960s through early 1980s to explain how human behavior is a product of two different and interacting evolutionary processes: genetic evolution and cultural evolution. Genes and culture continually interact in a feedback loop: changes in genes can lead to changes in culture which can then influence genetic selection, and vice versa. One of the theory's central claims is that culture evolves partly through a Darwinian selection process, which dual inheritance theorists often describe by analogy to genetic evolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerd B. Müller</span> Austrian biologist (born 1953)

Gerd B. Müller is an Austrian biologist who is emeritus professor at the University of Vienna where he was the head of the Department of Theoretical Biology in the Center for Organismal Systems Biology. His research interests focus on vertebrate limb development, evolutionary novelties, evo-devo theory, and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. He is also concerned with the development of 3D based imaging tools in developmental biology.

Ecological inheritance occurs when organisms inhabit a modified environment that a previous generation created; it was first described in Odling-Smee (1988) and Odling-Smee et al. (1996) as a consequence of niche construction. Standard evolutionary theory focuses on the influence that natural selection and genetic inheritance has on biological evolution, when individuals that survive and reproduce also transmit genes to their offspring. If offspring do not live in a modified environment created by their parents, then niche construction activities of parents do not affect the selective pressures of their offspring. However, when niche construction affects multiple generations, ecological inheritance acts a inheritance system different than genetic inheritance.

The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) 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 was called for in the 1950s by C. H. Waddington, argued for on the basis of punctuated equilibrium by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge in the 1980s, and was reconceptualized in 2007 by Massimo Pigliucci and Gerd B. Müller.

Evolutionary psychology has traditionally focused on individual-level behaviors, determined by species-typical psychological adaptations. Considerable work, though, has been done on how these adaptations shape and, ultimately govern, culture. Tooby and Cosmides (1989) argued that the mind consists of many domain-specific psychological adaptations, some of which may constrain what cultural material is learned or taught. As opposed to a domain-general cultural acquisition program, where an individual passively receives culturally-transmitted material from the group, Tooby and Cosmides (1989), among others, argue that: "the psyche evolved to generate adaptive rather than repetitive behavior, and hence critically analyzes the behavior of those surrounding it in highly structured and patterned ways, to be used as a rich source of information out of which to construct a 'private culture' or individually tailored adaptive system; in consequence, this system may or may not mirror the behavior of others in any given respect.".

Cultural evolution is an evolutionary theory of social change. It follows from the definition of culture as "information capable of affecting individuals' behavior that they acquire from other members of their species through teaching, imitation and other forms of social transmission". Cultural evolution is the change of this information over time.

In biology, reciprocal causation arises when developing organisms are both products of evolution as well as causes of evolution. Formally, reciprocal causation exists when process A is a cause of process B and, subsequently, process B is a cause of process A, with this feedback potentially repeated. Some researchers, particularly advocates of the extended evolutionary synthesis, promote the view that causation in biological systems is inherently reciprocal.

In biology, constructive development refers to the hypothesis that organisms shape their own developmental trajectory by constantly responding to, and causing, changes in both their internal state and their external environment. Constructive development can be contrasted with programmed development, the hypothesis that organisms develop according to a genetic program or blueprint. The constructivist perspective is found in philosophy, most notably developmental systems theory, and in the biological and social sciences, including developmental psychobiology and key themes of the extended evolutionary synthesis. Constructive development may be important to evolution because it enables organisms to produce functional phenotypes in response to genetic or environmental perturbation, and thereby contributes to adaptation and diversification.

Karola Stotz was a German scholar of philosophy of biology, cognitive science, and philosophy of science. With Paul E. Griffiths, she pioneered the use of experimental philosophy methods in the field of philosophy of science.

Gillian Ruth Brown is a British psychologist and reader in Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews. She is known for her research on the evolutionary approaches to the study of human behavior. Brown held a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship from 2006 to 2010.

Henry Charles Plotkin was a British evolutionary psychologist who applied Darwinian principles to the understanding of the mind, behavior, culture and knowledge.

References

  1. ↑ "Laland, Kevin N." Library of Congress Name Authority File. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  2. ↑ "Current lab members – The Lala Lab". lalandlab.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  3. ↑ Odling-Smee, J.; Laland, K. N.; Feldman, M. W. (February 2000). "Niche construction, biological evolution, and cultural change". Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 23 (1): 131–146, discussion 146–175. doi:10.1017/s0140525x00002417. ISSN   0140-525X. PMID   11303338. S2CID   13893525.
  4. 1 2 Laland, K. N.; Odling-Smee, J.; Feldman, M. W. (2003). Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution. Princeton University Press. p. 488. ISBN   9780691044378.
  5. ↑ Zimmer, Carl (22 November 2016). "Scientists Seek to Update Evolution". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  6. ↑ "ERC Funded Projects". European Research Council. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  7. ↑ "Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship". University of St. Andrews. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  8. 1 2 "Putting the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis to the Test". John Templeton Foundation. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  9. ↑ "archived:www.cambridge.org/core/membership/ehbea/about-us". cambridge.org. Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  10. ↑ "About Us". culturalevolutionsociety.org. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  11. ↑ "People | External Faculty | Discover The KLI". kli.ac.at. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  12. ↑ Toyokawa, Wataru; Whalen, Andrew; Laland, Kevin N. (21 January 2019). "Social learning strategies regulate the wisdom and madness of interactive crowds". Nature Human Behaviour. 3 (2): 183–193. doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0518-x. hdl: 10023/18143 . ISSN   2397-3374. PMID   30944445. S2CID   256703977.
  13. ↑ Laland, Kevin; Seed, Amanda (4 January 2021). "Understanding Human Cognitive Uniqueness". Annual Review of Psychology. 72 (1): 689–716. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-062220-051256. ISSN   0066-4308. PMID   33400565. S2CID   230784383.
  14. ↑ "The Lala Lab – Research in the School of Biology". lalandlab.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  15. ↑ Odling-Smee FJ (1988) Niche-constructing phenotypes. In: Plotkin HC (ed) The Role of Behavior in Evolution. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 73–132
  16. ↑ Odling-Smee, F. John; Laland, Kevin N.; Feldman, Marcus W. (1996). "Niche Construction". The American Naturalist. 147 (4): 641–648. doi:10.1086/285870. ISSN   0003-0147. JSTOR   2463239. S2CID   222326061.
  17. ↑ Laland, K. N.; Odling-Smee, F. J.; Feldman, M. W. (31 August 1999). "Evolutionary consequences of niche construction and their implications for ecology". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 96 (18): 10242–10247. Bibcode:1999PNAS...9610242L. doi: 10.1073/pnas.96.18.10242 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   17873 . PMID   10468593.
  18. ↑ Matthews, Blake; De Meester, Luc; Jones, Clive G.; Ibelings, Bas W.; Bouma, Tjeerd J.; Nuutinen, Visa; de Koppel, Johan van; Odling-Smee, John (May 2014). "Under niche construction: an operational bridge between ecology, evolution, and ecosystem science". Ecological Monographs. 84 (2): 245–263. Bibcode:2014EcoM...84..245M. doi:10.1890/13-0953.1. ISSN   0012-9615.
  19. ↑ Laland, Kevin N.; Odling-Smee, John; Gilbert, Scott F. (15 November 2008). "EvoDevo and niche construction: building bridges". Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution. 310B (7): 549–566. Bibcode:2008JEZB..310..549L. doi:10.1002/jez.b.21232. PMID   18756522.
  20. ↑ Kendal, Jeremy; Tehrani, Jamshid J.; Odling-Smee, John (27 March 2011). "Human niche construction in interdisciplinary focus". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 366 (1566): 785–792. doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0306. ISSN   0962-8436. PMC   3048995 . PMID   21320894.
  21. ↑ Laland, Kevin N.; Odling-Smee, John; Myles, Sean (February 2010). "How culture shaped the human genome: bringing genetics and the human sciences together". Nature Reviews Genetics. 11 (2): 137–148. doi:10.1038/nrg2734. ISSN   1471-0056. PMID   20084086. S2CID   10287878.
  22. ↑ Laland, Kevin N.; Odling-Smee, John; Feldman, Marcus W. (February 2000). "Niche construction, biological evolution, and cultural change". Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 23 (1): 131–146. doi:10.1017/s0140525x00002417. ISSN   0140-525X. PMID   11303338. S2CID   13893525.
  23. ↑ Laland, Kevin; Uller, Tobias; Feldman, Marc; Sterelny, Kim; Müller, Gerd B.; Moczek, Armin; Jablonka, Eva; Odling-Smee, John; Wray, Gregory A.; Hoekstra, Hopi E.; Futuyma, Douglas J.; Lenski, Richard E.; Mackay, Trudy F. C.; Schluter, Dolph; Strassmann, Joan E. (October 2014). "Does evolutionary theory need a rethink?". Nature. 514 (7521): 161–164. Bibcode:2014Natur.514..161L. doi: 10.1038/514161a . ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   25297418. S2CID   4467421.
  24. ↑ Laland, Kevin N.; Uller, Tobias; Feldman, Marcus W.; Sterelny, Kim; Müller, Gerd B.; Moczek, Armin; Jablonka, Eva; Odling-Smee, John (22 August 2015). "The extended evolutionary synthesis: its structure, assumptions and predictions". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 282 (1813): 20151019. doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.1019. PMC   4632619 . PMID   26246559.
  25. ↑ "Extended Evolutionary Synthesis – An integrative research program" . Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  26. ↑ "Committee – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion". biology.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  27. ↑ "Anti-racism – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion". biology.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  28. ↑ Laland, Kevin N. (25 August 2020). "Racism in academia, and why the 'little things' matter". Nature. 584 (7822): 653–654. Bibcode:2020Natur.584..653L. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-02471-6. PMID   32843730. S2CID   221285014.
  29. ↑ "ReSourcE Spring 2021". Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  30. ↑ "Current lab members – the Laland Lab" . Retrieved 23 February 2024.
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