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]
Kevin Lala | |
|---|---|
| Born | Kevin Neville Lala 5 October 1962 |
| Nationality | English |
| Other names | Kevin 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 |
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
- Evolutionary Causation: Biological and Philosophical Reflections, The MIT Press, 2019, Tobias Uller, Kevin N Laland ISBN 9780262039925
- Darwin's Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind, Princeton University Press, 2017 ISBN 9780691151182
- Social Learning: An Introduction to Mechanisms, Methods, and Models, Princeton University Press, 2013, William Hoppitt and Kevin N. Laland ISBN 9780691150703
- Sense and nonsense: Evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour, Oxford University Press, 2011, Kevin N. Laland and Gillian R. Brown, 2nd edition ISBN 9780199586967
- Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution, Princeton University Press, 2003, John Odling-Smee, Kevin N. Laland, Marcus W. Feldman ISBN 9780691044378
- Sense and nonsense: Evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour, Oxford University Press, 2002, Kevin N. Laland and Gillian R. Brown, 1st edition ISBN 9780198508847