Russell Gray
{{short description|New Zealand linguist and evolutionary biologist}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Russell Gray
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name = Russell David Gray
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality = New Zealand
| occupation = Scientist
| spouse =
| alma_mater =
| influences =
| workplaces = Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
| main_interests = Evolution, computational phylogenetics
| notable_works =
| notable_ideas =
| influenced =
| signature =
| signature_size =
| footnotes =
| thesis_title = Design, constraint and construction: Essays and experiments on evolution and foraging
| thesis_url = https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/1852
| thesis_year = 1990
| doctoral_advisor = John Craig and Michael Davison
| doctoral_students = Simon Greenhill
}}
Russell David Gray is a New Zealand evolutionary biologist and psychologist working on applying quantitative methods to the study of cultural evolution and human prehistory. In 2020, he became a co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.{{cite web |last1=Gray |first1=Russell |url=https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/russell-gray/ |website=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |access-date=3 Dec 2021|title=Russell Gray}} Although originally trained in biology and psychology, Gray has become well known for his studies on the evolution of the Indo-European and Austronesian language families using computational phylogenetic methods.
Gray also performs research on animal cognition. One of his main research-projects studies the use of tools among New Caledonian crows.
Career
Gray completed his Ph.D. at the University of Auckland in 1990.{{cite thesis |last=Gray |first=Russell |year=1990 |type=Doctoral thesis |title=Design, constraint and construction: essays and experiments on evolution and foraging |publisher=ResearchSpace@Auckland, University of Auckland |hdl=2292/1852}} He spent four years lecturing at the University of Otago, New Zealand, before returning to the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and has been awarded with several fellowships, as well as the inaugural Mason Durie Medal (in 2012) for his pioneering contributions to social science.{{cite web |title=Recipients of the Mason Durie Medal |url=https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/what-we-do/medals-and-awards/mason-durie-medal/recipients-3/ |website=Royal Society Te Apārangi |access-date=3 Dec 2021}} In 2014, he became one of the two founding directors of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, where he has been heading the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution [until it moved to Leipzig in 2020]. He also holds adjunct positions in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland and the Department of Philosophy at the Australian National University.
Gray's doctoral thesis was titled Design, constraint and construction: essays and experiments on evolution and foraging.{{CiteQ|Q111963797}}
Notable students of Gray include Simon Greenhill.{{cite thesis |last=Greenhill |first=Simon |year=2008 |type=Doctoral thesis |title=The archives of history : a phylogenetic approach to the study of language |publisher=ResearchSpace@Auckland, University of Auckland |hdl=2292/51143}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.psych.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/russell-gray/ Official faculty page]
;Video
- [https://lt.org/publication/did-religion-play-causal-role-evolution-large-complex-societies Video on Russell Gray's research (Latest Thinking)]
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Russell}}
Category:Evolutionary biologists
Category:Computational linguistics researchers
Category:Linguists of Austronesian languages
Category:Academic staff of the University of Auckland
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Category:Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Category:Phylogenetics researchers
Category:University of Auckland alumni
Category:Max Planck Institute directors
Category:James Cook Research Fellows
{{biologist-stub}}