David Andrew Whiten, known as Andrew Whiten was born on 1948 and is a British zoologist and psychologist, Professor of Evolutionary and Developmental Psychology, and Professor Wardlaw Emeritus at University of St Andrews in Scotland.
11 Facts About Andrew Whiten
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Andrew Whiten is known for his research in social cognition, specifically on social learning, tradition and the evolution of culture, social Machiavellian intelligence, autism and imitation, as well as the behavioral ecology of sociality.
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Andrew Whiten graduated with a degree in zoology from the University of Sheffield and achieved a PhD in Psychology at the University of Bristol.
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Andrew Whiten was founder and first director of the primate research center Living Links to Human Evolution that opened 2008 in Edinburgh Zoo and draws more than 250,000 visitors per year.
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Andrew Whiten is a pioneer in the study of cultural evolution in chimpanzees and other primates, studying them for decades.
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Andrew Whiten has demonstrated the existent of traditions in primate culture in areas such as foraging, tool use and courtship.
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Andrew Whiten has shown that it is possible to introduce new traditions, by teaching primates in different groups different methods for getting a treat from a box.
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Andrew Whiten was member of the Editorial Board of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences, from 2008 to 2013.
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Andrew Whiten additionally chaired the Research Awards Committee of the British Academy from 2011 to 2013.
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Andrew Whiten was awarded the Delwart International Scientific Prize by the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium in 2001, the Rivers Memorial Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and the Osman Hill Medal of the Primate Society of Great Britain in 2007.
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Andrew Whiten is the first and only scientist who was awarded both, the Sir James Black Medal and the Senior Prize and Medal for Public Engagement by the Royal Society of Edinburgh.