Erol Akçay is a Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a theoretical biologist interested in the evolution of complex biological and social organization. He works on how individuals with conflicting interests evolve to cooperate with each other. He has worked on systems varying from plant-microbe mutualisms to animal behavior and cultural evolution in humans. Dr. Akçay’s research has been published by Science, the American Naturalist, Nature Communications, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and more. Dr. Akçay’s lab is affiliated with the Evolution Cluster, the Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences, the Social and Cultural Evolution Working Group (SCEW), and MindCORE.