Jessica Flack

Jessica Flack attended Cornell University for her undergraduate studies and graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of the Arts (Honors Degree). She received her PhD from Emory University in 2003, where she studied cognitive science, animal behavior and evolutionary theory. Following her Ph.D. she moved to the Santa Fe Institute as a postdoctoral fellow,{{Cite journal |date=2006 |title=Jessica Flack |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=439 |issue=7075 |pages=xiii |doi=10.1038/7075xiiia |s2cid=4427894 |issn=0028-0836|doi-access=free }} and studied complexity science, collective behavior, and robustness from 2004 to 2007.{{cite web |last=Flack |first=Jessica |date=2015 |title=Jessica C Flack |url=http://c4.santafe.edu/people/c4Jessica/ |access-date=2020-12-14 |website=Collective Computation Group @SFI}}

In 2011 she moved to the University of Wisconsin, Madison to help found and direct the Center of Complexity & Collective Computation in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.{{cite web |title=Jessica C. Flack |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/37085338040 |access-date=2020-12-14 |website=IEEE Xplore}} Following her work in Wisconsin, she went back to the Santa Fe Institute and, as of 2022, works there as a professor. Flack also acts as the director for the Collective Computation Group at SFI, and serves as the chair of public events. She performs much of her research in collaboration with co-director David Krakauer.{{Cite web |last=Wolcott |first=Robert C. |title=Laziness, Technology And Brain Scanning A Billion People: A Conversation With David Krakauer |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwolcott/2017/07/31/laziness-technology-and-brain-scanning-a-billion-people-a-conversation-with-david-krakauer/ |access-date=2022-06-06 |website=Forbes |language=en}}

Flack is known for her work connecting the behavior of individuals to group activity.{{Cite web |last=Sokol |first=Joshua |date=2017-07-06 |title=How Nature Solves Problems Through Computation |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-nature-solves-problems-through-computation-20170706/ |access-date=2022-06-06 |website=Quanta Magazine |language=en}} She has used animals, particularly macaques monkeys, to examine group behavior.{{Cite book |last=Christakis |first=Nicholas A. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1089804986 |title=Blueprint : the evolutionary origins of a good society |date=2019 |isbn=978-0-316-23003-2 |edition=First |location=New York, NY |oclc=1089804986}}{{Cite book |last=Dugatkin |first=Lee Alan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ST5ZEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22jessica+flack%22&pg=PA106 |title=Power in the Wild: The Subtle and Not-So-Subtle Ways Animals Strive for Control over Others |date=2022-04-20 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-81595-4 |pages=106–107 |language=en}} Flack's early work examined social rules within chimpanzees.{{Cite journal |last1=Flack |first1=Jessica C. |last2=Jeannotte |first2=Lisa A. |last3=de Waal |first3=Frans B. M. |date=2004 |title=Play Signaling and the Perception of Social Rules by Juvenile Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). |url=http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/0735-7036.118.2.149 |journal=Journal of Comparative Psychology |language=en |volume=118 |issue=2 |pages=149–159 |doi=10.1037/0735-7036.118.2.149 |pmid=15250802 |issn=1939-2087|url-access=subscription }} Her work with macaque revealed that fights within a group improve group's ability to make decisions,{{Cite web |last=Giles |first=Jim |date=13 May 2010 |title=Monkeys' art of war has lessons for human conflict |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18898-monkeys-art-of-war-has-lessons-for-human-conflict/ |access-date=2022-06-06 |website=New Scientist |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |date=January 19, 2018 |title=Monkey fight club helps animals to learn to live together peacefully |work=CBC |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/do-lobsters-feel-pain-fighting-cocaine-addiction-monkey-fight-club-for-peace-and-more-1.4489613/monkey-fight-club-helps-animals-to-learn-to-live-together-peacefully-1.4489636 |access-date=June 6, 2022}} a process Flack calls collective computation.{{Cite journal |last1=Brush |first1=Eleanor R. |last2=Krakauer |first2=David C. |last3=Flack |first3=Jessica C. |date=2018-01-05 |title=Conflicts of interest improve collective computation of adaptive social structures |journal=Science Advances |language=en |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=e1603311 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.1603311 |issn=2375-2548 |pmc=5777398 |pmid=29376116|bibcode=2018SciA....4.3311B }} She has also used macaque to examine conflict resolution{{Cite journal |last1=Flack |first1=Jessica C |last2=Krakauer |first2=David C |last3=de Waal |first3=Frans B. M |date=2005-06-07 |title=Robustness mechanisms in primate societies: a perturbation study |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |language=en |volume=272 |issue=1568 |pages=1091–1099 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2004.3019 |issn=0962-8452 |pmc=1559816 |pmid=16024369}} and social structure.{{Cite journal |last1=Flack |first1=Jessica C. |last2=de Waal |first2=Frans B.M. |last3=Krakauer |first3=David C. |date=2005 |title=Social Structure, Robustness, and Policing Cost in a Cognitively Sophisticated Species |url=http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/429277 |journal=The American Naturalist |language=en |volume=165 |issue=5 |pages=E126–E139 |doi=10.1086/429277 |pmid=15795848 |s2cid=1159935 |issn=0003-0147|url-access=subscription }}

• {{Cite journal |last1=Flack |first1=Jessica C. |last2=Girvan |first2=Michelle |last3=de Waal |first3=Frans B. M. |last4=Krakauer |first4=David C. |date=2006|title=Policing stabilizes construction of social niches in primates |url=http://www.nature.com/articles/nature04326 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=439 |issue=7075 |pages=426–429 |doi=10.1038/nature04326 |pmid=16437106 |bibcode=2006Natur.439..426F |s2cid=4416675 |issn=0028-0836|url-access=subscription }}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Flack |first1=J.C. |last2=de Waal |first2=F.B.M. |date=2000-01-01 |title='Any animal whatever'. Darwinian building blocks of morality in monkeys and apes |url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/imp/jcs/2000/00000007/f0020001/1114 |journal=Journal of Consciousness Studies |volume=7 |issue=1–2 |pages=1–29}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Flack |first=Jessica C. |date=2012-07-05 |title=Multiple time-scales and the developmental dynamics of social systems |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |volume=367 |issue=1597 |pages=1802–1810 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2011.0214 |pmc=3367696 |pmid=22641819}}

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Category:Living people

Category:Cornell University alumni

Category:Emory University alumni

Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty

Category:Santa Fe Institute people

Category:Data scientists

Category:Women data scientists

Category:Primatologists

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)