Russell David Gray is a New Zealand evolutionary biologist and psychologist working on applying quantitative methods to the study of cultural evolution and human prehistory. In 2020, he became a co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. Although originally trained in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

, Gray has become well known for his studies on the evolution of the

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

and Austronesian language families using

computational phylogenetic Computational phylogenetics is the application of computational algorithms, methods, and programs to phylogenetic

methods. Gray also performs research on animal cognition. One of his main research-projects studies tool-use among New Caledonian crows.

Career

Gray completed his Ph.D. at the
University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
in 1990. He spent four years lecturing at the
University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate ...
, New Zealand, before returning to the School of Psychology at the
University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
. He is a Fellow of the
Royal Society of New Zealand Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a c ...
and has been awarded with several fellowships, as well as the inaugural Mason Durie Medal
n 2012 N, or n, is the fourteenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet# ...
for his pioneering contributions to social science.[] In 2014, he became one of the two founding directors of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, where he has been heading the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution ntil it moved to Leipzig in 2020 He also holds adjunct positions in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland and the Department of Philosophy at the
Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...
.

Gray's doctoral thesis was titled ''Design, constraint and construction: essays and experiments on evolution and foraging''.

References

External links

Official faculty page
;Video
Video on Russell Gray's research (Latest Thinking)
Evolutionary biologists Computational linguistics researchers Linguists of Austronesian languages University of Auckland faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Phylogenetics researchers {{biologist-stub