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Marco Smolla

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture
Deutscher Platz 6
D - 04103 Leipzig, Germany

phone: +49 341 3550 338
e-mail: marco_smolla@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de
website: https://marcosmolla.com

Research interests
Curriculum Vitae
Publications

Research interests

I am computational and evolutionary biologist with a background in behavioural physiology and ecology. My research focusses on how we make culture and how this affects us. I am using simulation models and existing data to study how culture emerges from individual and inter-individual actions and how it spreads in populations. I explicitly model dynamic social networks to simulate real-world interaction and information sharing patterns that change over time. I am currently working towards a modelling framework that is more explicit about the process of learning, taking into account insights from developmental psychology, ethnography, and anthropology.
 

Curriculum Vitae

Current position

Postdoctoral fellow in Dr Anne Kandler’s lab at the Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Appointments held

2017-2021Postdoctoral fellow in Dr Erol Akçay’s lab at the Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania

Education

2017PhD in Evolutionary Biology, University of Manchester, United Kingdom (supervision by Dr Susanne Shultz and Dr Tucker Gilman)
2011Diplom (Masters equivalent) in Biology, University of Würzburg, Germany (supervision by Dr Christoph J. Kleineidam)
2008Vordiplom in Biology, University of Jena, Germany

Grants & awards

2013Royal Society Studentship for a three-year PhD project at the University of Manchester
2012Internship Stipend ($2,400), Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

 

Publications

2023

Lew-Levy, S., van den Bos, W., Corriveau, K., Dutra, N. B., Flynn, E., O'Sullivan, E., Pope, S., Rawlings, B., Smolla, M., Xu, J., & Wood, L. (2023). Peer learning and cultural evolution. Child Development Perspectives, 17(2), 97-105.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Smolla, M., & Akçay, E. (2023). Pathways to cultural adaptation: the coevolution of cumulative culture and social networks. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 5: e26, pp. 1-20.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2022

Perry, S. E., Carter, A., Foster, J. G., Nöbel, S., & Smolla, M. (2022). What makes inventions become traditions? Annual Review of Anthropology, 51, 419-436.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Acerbi, A., Mesoudi, A., & Smolla, M. (2022). Individual-based models of cultural evolution: A step-by-step guide using R. Routledge.
BibTeX   Endnote   

2021

Perry, S., Carter, A., Smolla, M., Akçay, E., Nöbel, S., Foster, J. G., & Healy, S. D. (2021). Not by transmission alone: The role of invention in cultural evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376(1828): 20200049.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Smolla, M., Jansson, F., Lehmann, L., Houkes, W., Weissing, F. J., Hammerstein, P., Dall, S. R. X., Kuijper, B., & Enquist, M. (2021). Underappreciated features of cultural evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376(1828): 20200259.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2020

Acerbi, A., Mesoudi, A., & Smolla, M. Individual-based models of cultural evolution. A step-by-step guide using R. Open Science Foundatoin (OSF).
DOI

Perry, S., & Smolla, M. (2020). Capuchin monkey rituals: An interdisciplinary study of form and function. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,
375(1805), 20190422.
DOI

Morsky, B., Smolla, M., & Akçay, E. (2020). Evolution of contribution timing in public goods games. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 287(1927), 20200735.
DOI

Gilman, R. T., Johnson, F., & Smolla, M. (2020). Competition for resources can promote the divergence of social learning phenotypes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological
Sciences, 287(1921), 20192770
DOI

2019

Smolla, M., Akçay, E. (2019). Cultural selection shapes network structure. Science Advances, 5(8), eaaw0609.
DOI

Smolla, M., Rosher, C., Gilman, R. T., Shultz, S. (2019). Reproductive skew affects social information use. Royal Society Open Science, 6(7), 182084. 
DOI

2018

Smolla, M., Invernizzi, E., Bazhydai, M., Casoli, M., Deffner, D., Faria, G. S., ... Uchiyama, R. (2018). Second Annual Workshop of the Association of Early-Career Social Learning Re-
searchers in St Andrews, Scotland. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews.
DOI

2016

Kranstauber B., SmollaM., Safi K., 2016. Similarity in spatial utilisation distributions measured by the Earth Mover’s Distance. Methods Ecol. Evol.
DOI

Smolla, M., Alem, S., Chittka, L., Shultz, S., 2016. Copy-when-uncertain: bumblebees rely on social information when rewards are highly variable. Biology Letters.
DOI

2015

Smolla, M., Galla, T., Gillman, T., Shultz, S., 2015. Competition for resources can explain patterns of social and individual learning in nature. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 
DOI

2014

Smolla, M., Nagel, M., Ruchty, M., Kleineidam, C.J., 2014. Clearing pigmented insect cuticle to investigate small insects’ organs in-situ using confocal laser-scanning microscopy
(CLSM). Arthropod Structure and Development.
DOI