Alex Bentley                       

Damian Ruck is a PhD candidate at the University of Bristol in the Bristol Center for Complexity Sciences, funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. His research involves using advanced computational and statistical methods to model recent changes in cultural values in many different countries worldwide using a large dataset of surveys. 

Dr. Alberto Acerbi is based in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Science of the Eindhoven University of Technology. Dr. Acerbi is a cognitive/evolutionary anthropologist using computational methods to study culture evolution in the 'big-data' era. See, for example:

Acerbi, A. & R.A. Bentley (2014). Biases in cultural transmission shape the turnover of popular traits. Evolution and Human Behavior 35: 228-236.

Acerbi, A., V. Lampos, P. Garnett & R.A. Bentley (2013) The expression of emotions in 20th century books. PLoS ONE 8(3): e59030.

Professor Mike O'Brien is now Provost at Texas A&M, San Antonio. See our new book, The Acceleration of Cultural Change: From Ancestors to Algorithms, about the past versus future of culture evolution.

Dr. Philip Garnett is Assistant Professor in the Management School at York University. Dr. Garnett researches the dynamics of fashion trends, linguistic evolution and synchronised human behaviour. See, for example:

Garnett, P., S. Mollan & R.A. Bentley (2014) Complexity in history: modelling the organizational demography of the British banking sector. Business History, in press. 

Bentley, R.A., P. Garnett, M.J. O’Brien & W.A Brock (2012). Word diffusion and climate science. PLoS ONE 7(11): e47966.

Dr. Charlotte King is in the Anatomy Dept., at Univerity of Otago. Dr. King usesisotopic and geometric morphometric analysis of human skeletons to investigate migration and kinship in prehistoric Thailand.  See, for example: 

King, C.L., R.A. Bentley, N.G. Tayles, U. Strand-Viðarsdóttir; G.M Nowell & C.G. Macpherson (2013) Isotopic differences highlight migration and subsistence changes in Thailand. Journal of Archaeological Science 40:1681-8.

Cat Jarman, PhD. is based in the Department of Archeology and Anthropology at Bristol University. Dr. Jarman uses compound-specific isotope analysis of skeletal remains to investigate ancient sefaring societies, such as the Vikings and ancient Polynesians.