Simon Kirby

Simon Kirby is a professor of language evolution at the University of Edinburgh and elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is head of the Centre for Language Evolution, whose focus is the cultural evolution of human behavior and its impact on the biological evolution of our species. His group combines computational simulation and laboratory experiments, and has pioneered a framework known as Iterated Learning. In addition to his scientific output, Kirby collaborates with sculptors and musicians to create interactive art installations exploring issues of communication and cultural evolution in the online world. His most well known work is the BAFTA-winning Cybraphon, now part of the permanent collection of the National Museum of Scotland.