ACE Lab: Applied Cultural Evolution Laboratory

Master’s student Afton Hupper summarized her previous work on the Bangor Food Hub project.

For a couple of years my colleague Jeremy Brooks (OSU) and I have led a group of researchers in the effort to apply cultural evolutionary thinking to sustainability research. This effort is finally starting to bear fruit with a Special Feature in the journal Sustainability Science. Papers are published as they are accepted and completed, and are available now. We are very excited to share this brand new work!

Special Feature:

Applying Cultural Evolution to Sustainability Challenges

Thursday Ethan Trembaly successfully defended his master’s thesis, entitled “Splitting Together: The Evolution of Cooperation in Food Buying Clubs.” Ethan wrangled a large and complex dataset, built simulation model of emergent cooperation dynamics in food buying clubs, and calibrated it using the data. PhD level work.

Congratulations Ethan!

Ethan Tremblay, Cooperation Scientist, Economist, Artisanal Data Analyst

On Monday my honors student and key lab member Afton defended her honors thesis before a her committee. She did an absolutely powerful job of it, as well, and was awarded with the highest honors that UMaine offers undergraduates.

Congratulations Afton!

Afton Hupper, Ecology and Environmental Sciences with Highest Honors, 2017 Most Outstanding Student in the College