Biography

Professor Dick Byrne studies the evolution of cognition, particularly the origins of distinctively human characteristics, using evidence from species as diverse as great apes, elephants and domestic pigs. In 1987, with three colleagues, he set up the Scottish Primate Research Group, which now links 17 faculty and their research teams in an informal collaboration spanning 5 Scottish universities. Professor Byrne has published 129 refereed journal articles, 67 invited book chapters, and edited 3 books. He was awarded the British Psychology Society Book Award 1997 for his O.U.P. monograph The Thinking Ape, and appointed to the fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2002. Current research projects focus on the gestural communication of great apes, and convergences in cognition between primates and distantly related species such as the African elephant. Previous work has included tactical deception in primates and its relationship to brain size and intelligence, welfare-related studies of cognition in the domestic pig, and the analysis of social learning and imitation.