Richard McElreath
Director
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
phone: +49 341 3550 301
fax: +49 341 3550 333
e-mail: richard_mcelreath@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de
office: level 1, room u1.10
personal web page: http://xcelab.net/rm/
Occasional blog: https://elevanth.org/blog/
Google Scholar profile: scholar.google.com
I am an anthropologist focused on the role of culture in human evolution and adaptation. I also wrote a very popular Bayesian statistics textbook. A major focus of the department is integrating theory with data analysis and study design, and I spend much of my time supporting my colleagues in that way.
Curriculum Vitae
Personal Information
Address | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Deutscher Platz 6 04103 Leipzig Germany |
richard_mcelreath@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de | |
Born | April 18, 1973 in Landstuhl, Germany |
Citizenship | United States |
Education and Employment
2018–present | Honorary Professor of Human Evolutionary Ecology, Leipzig University |
2015–present | Director, Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig |
2014–2018 | Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis |
2006–2014 | Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis |
2002–2006 | Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis |
2001–2002 | Post-doctoral researcher, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin |
2001 | Ph.D. Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles |
1995 | B.S. Anthropology and Human Biology, Emory University, Atlanta GA |
Professional Activities
2014–2015 | Chair, Evolutionary Anthropology, UC Davis |
2007–2009 | Strategic Planning Committee, UCD Letters and Science |
2007– | Field researcher, AHRC Culture and the Mind project |
2006–2012 | Trainer, CLIMB (Collaborative Learning at the Intersection of Math and Biology) undergraduate training program, UC Davis |
2006– | Member and PhD advisor, Population Biology Graduate Group, UC Davis |
2004– | Chair, Human Ecology Area of Emphasis, Graduate Group in Ecology, UC Davis |
2002– | Member, Animal Behavior Graduate Group, UC Davis |
2001– | Member, Graduate Group in Ecology, UC Davis |
Software
GameWeb | A bundle of code for running multi-participant experiments, with process-tracing, based on Mouselab Web. Used in a number of laboratories, as well as in field locations, using handheld computers. |
rethinking | An R package for conducting custom Bayesian data analysis, using MAP estimation as well as Hamiltonian Monte Carlo. Allows for arbitrarily complex multilevel models. |
glmer2stan | This R package provides a function, glmer2stan, to build a Stan (mc-stan.org) model from a glmer/glm formula or list of formulas. Available model families are "gaussian", "binomial", "poisson", "gamma", "ordered" (ordered logit), as well as any combinations of these. For example, combining binomial with poisson produces a zero-inflated poisson multilevel model. Computes DIC and WAIC. |
Grants and Awards
2015 | NSF grant (co-PI Jeremy Koster) to fund analytical work on foraging lifespan data |
2014 | NSF grant to fund collaboration with Dr. Tom Flamson, doing field research in Brazil on the micro-foundations of group formation and cooperation. |
2013 | NSF DDIG awarded to PhD student Karl Frost for field research in Canada. |
2012 | NSF grant to fund field research with Dr. John Bunce on the formation and maintenance of ethnic boundaries in the Peruvian Amazon. |
2010 | NSF post-doctoral research grant, in support of Dr. Kari Schroeder |
2009 | NSF grant for pilot ethnographic work in the Faroe Islands, Denmark. |
2008 | NSF DDIG awarded to PhD student Timothy Waring for fieldwork in India. |
2007 | Elected UCD Chancellor’s Fellow, $25,000 research award. |
2005 | Small grant in aid of research, Committee on Research, UC Davis, $2000. |
2005 | Studying cultural dynamics in laboratory microsocieties, NSF, ($140,000; Co-PIs Peter J. Richerson and Mark Lubell) |
2004 | Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models: Studying cultural evolution in laboratory microsocieties, NSF, ($80,000; Co-PIs Peter J. Richerson and Mark Lubell) |
2003 | Junior faculty research improvement grant, $3000. |
2002-2005 | NSF grant, “Foundations of human sociality”, supporting ethnographic work ($8500) |
2001-2002 | Max Planck Institute post-doctoral fellowship, MPI for Human Development, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Berlin |
2000-2001 | Chancellor’s dissertation year fellowship, UCLA |
2000 | MacArthur Foundation grant in experimental economics, $19070 |
2000 | International Studies and Overseas Programs (Ford Foundation) doctoral research grant, $5000 |
1998 | MacArthur Foundation grant for economic field research, $8000 |
1996 | Pre-doctoral research grant, International Studies and Overseas Programs (ISOP), UCLA, $6000 |
1995 | National Science Foundation pre-doctoral research grant, $5000 |
Past PhD Students and Post-Doctoral Trainees
Tim Waring | PhD Ecology, focusing on common pool resource management in irrigation systems in Southern India. Now Assistant Professor of Social-Ecological Systems, University of Maine. |
Adrian Bell | PhD Ecology, focusing on cultural transmission within ongoing Polynesian diaspora. Fieldwork in Tonga. Now Assistant Professor, University of Utah. |
Bret Beheim | PhD Ecology, focusing on population dynamics and demography of cultural transmission. Regional focus Japan and China. Now post-doctoral researcher at University of New Mexico, Tsimane Health and Life History Project. |
Kari Britt Schroeder | Post-doctoral trainee, focusing on urban ethnography, survey, and laboratory experiments and biomarkers for cooperation and punishment behavior. Now post-doctoral researcher at Boston University. |
Matthew Zimmerman | PhD Ecology, focusing on large-scale institutional dynamics and evolutionary ecology. Now post-doctoral scholar at NIMBioS. |
Ryan Baldini | PhD Ecology, focusing on mathematical life history theory and cultural transmission. Now post-doctoral researcher at Stanford University, working on the evolution and dynamics of human birth weight. |
John Bunce | Post-doctoral trainee, focusing on dynamics of ethnic identity and cultural variation among Matsigenka of Peruvian Amazon. Now Visiting Assistant Professor at Indiana Bloomington. |
Paul Smaldino | Post-doctor trainee, focusing on population dynamics of scientific discovery. |
Publications
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