Pascal Boyer (Washington University) is Henry Luce Professor of Individual and Collective Memory in Arts & Sciences. An anthropologist and psychologist, he is internationally recognized for his studies of how people and communities perceive and understand characteristics of their culture. His work centers on questions concerning the understanding of culture and its scientific investigation as it relates to the mind and the brain. Most of his research is focused on the cognitive processes...

Ashok Gangadean (Haverford College) is Professor of Philosophy and was the first Director of the Margaret Gest Center for Cross–Cultural Study of Religion at Haverford. His primary concern throughout his career has been to clarify the universal logos or common ground at the heart of human reason and rational life. He is Founder–Director of the Global Dialogue Institute, which seeks to embody the dialogical powers of global reason in all aspects of cultural life. His book, Meditative Reason:...

John Tooby (University of California, Santa Barbara) is Professor of Anthropology and co–director of UCSB’ Center for Evolutionary Psychology, where he and his collaborators use cross–cultural, experimental, and neuroscience techniques to investigate specific cognitive specializations for cooperation, group psychology, and human reasoning. Under Tooby’ direction, the Center maintains a field station in Ecuadorian Amazonia in order to conduct cross–cultural studies of psychological adaptations...

William Grassie (Metanexus Institute) is the founder of the Metanexus Institute, executive editor of the Institute’ online magazine and discussion forum with over 40,000 weekly page views and over 6000 regular subscribers in 57 different countries, and national program director for the Templeton Research Lectures on the Constructive Engagement of Science and Religion. He has been a visiting professor at Temple University, Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania, and specializes...

James Hughes (Trinity College) is currently Associate Director of Institutional Research and Planning at Trinity College in Hartford, where he teaches Health Policy, Drug Policy, Infectious Disease Policy, and Research Methods in Trinity’ Graduate Public Policy Studies program. In 2004, Hughes was appointed the Executive Director of the World Transhumanist Association and he became Executive of the affiliated think tank, the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. He is a Fellow of...

Sander van der Leeuw (Arizona State University) is Professor and Director of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at ASU. An archaeologist and historian by training, Van der Leeuw’s research interests have been in archaeological theory, reconstruction of ancient ceramic technologies, regional archaeology, (ancient and modern) man–land relationships, GIS and modeling, and Complex Systems Theory. He has done archaeological fieldwork in Syria, Holland and France, and conducted...

Leda Cosmides is best known for her work with John Tooby in pioneering the new field of evolutionary psychology. This multidisciplinary new approach weaves together evolutionary biology, cognitive science, human evolution, hunter gatherer studies, neuroscience, and psychology into a new approach to discovering the mechainsms of the human mind and brain. According to this new view, by understanding the adaptive problems our hunter–gatherer ancestors faced during their evolution, researchers...