Personal Details

Name: Iain Douglas Couzin

Nationality: British

Education

B.Sc., University of St. Andrews (Biology, 1st class honours).

Ph.D., University of Bath "Collective Animal Behaviour".

M.A., Balliol College, University of Oxford.

(2007 - ) Assistant Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University.

(2005 - ) Royal Society University Research Fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford.

(2003 - 2005) Research Fellow, Department of Zoology & Centre for Mathematical Biology, University of Oxford.

(2003 - 2006) Junior Research Fellow in the Sciences, Balliol College, University of Oxford.

(2002 - 2005) Visiting Research Fellow, Pew Program in Biocomplexity, Princeton University (with Simon Levin).

(2000 - 2002) Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Leeds (with Jens Krause).

(2008)  Searle Scholar Award. See the Searle website for further information.

(2008)  Annual Marsden Lecture, McGill University, Canada.

(2008)  Lecturer, Santa Fe Institute Complex Systems Summer School.

(2005 - present) Royal Society University Research Fellowship.

(2003 - present) Elected Junior Research Fellow in the Sciences, Balliol College, University of Oxford.

(2002 - present) Fellow of the Princeton Environmental Institute, Princeton University.

(2004) Scientist in residence (invited), thematic institute “From Many-Particle Physics to Multi-Agent Systems”, Max-Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden.

(2003) Fellow of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Bielefeld.

(2002) Visiting postdoctoral fellowship, Pew Program in Biocomplexity, Princeton University.

(2001) Visiting scientist, “From individual to collective behaviour in biological systems” programme, Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge University.

(1995) Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, research fellowship, University of St. Andrews.

(1994) Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, vacation scholarship, University of St. Andrews.

(2008 - 2011) Searle Scholar Award ($300,000)

(2005 - 2008) Recognized researcher, BBSRC project with Profs. Marian Dawkins (zoology) and Steve Roberts (engineering). Behavioural interactions and animal welfare in situ using digital tracking of grouping animals. Part of an 8 million pound nationwide programme of research to improve the understanding of animal welfare science. See press release.

(2005 - 2007) International collaborator, modeling pelagic fish schools, Institute of Marine Research, Norway..

(2005-2007) Researcher, Princeton-Oxford research collaboration "Decision-making under risk and uncertainty".

(2004 - 2007) Recognized Researcher, EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK) grant “Extended Particle Swarms” (983, 586 GBP).

(2003 - 2006) Researcher (and principal author) EPSRC grant GR/S04765/01 (non-linear systems mathematics) “Understanding group formation and the collective movement of locusts”, University of Oxford (256, 364 GBP).

(2001 - 2004) Advisor, EPSRC grant GR/R45536/01 (artificial intelligence technologies) “Developing control and co-ordination mechanisms for micro-robots based on the study of sorting in Leptothorax ants”, Chris Melhuish and Ana Sendova-Franks, Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory, University of the West of England.

(2004) Scientific coordinator (with F. Schweitzer), international workshop on “Multi-agent Systems – Swarms, Ecology and Society”, Max-Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden.

(2003) Organiser (with S. Simpson), International Workshop on Collective Behaviour, University of Oxford.

(2003) Program committee member, 2nd International Workshop on the mathematics and Algorithms of Social Insects, Atlanta, Georgia.

(2007) Adviser to the NSF bio-directorate on systems biology.

(2007) Consultant and researcher for H.M. Government on human crowd behaviour.

(2004 - 2006) Invited by Sir David King, Chief Scientific Advisor to H.M. Government, to advise the Department of Trade and Industry..

(2001) Founded "Eciton Software" computer vision company.

(1999 - present) Scientific advisor and 3D computer simulation developer, BBC Natural History Unit, Bristol. Internationally broadcast series include "Predators", "Animal Camera" and "Massive Nature" (BBC1).

(1999 - present) Computer vision consultant and software developer for Syngenta UK (formerly Astra-Zeneca and Novartis).

Publications

See my publications page.

Public understanding of science and selected media coverage

Through television, radio and talks I actively promote and communicate science to the public.

Television series include BBC1 Natural History Unit documentaries “Predators” (2000), “Animal Camera” (2004), “Massive Nature” (2004) and Channel 5's "Killer Swarms" (2005)..

BBC Wildlife Magazine "Mob rules" (2004)

Granada TV “Jungles” (2004).

BBC Radio 4 “Questions, questions” (2004).

Editor’s Choice, “Avoiding gridlock” (2003), Science, 299, 19.

“Army ants march to work with military efficiency” New Scientist, Jan 2003.

“Army ants obey traffic plan to avoid jams” National Geographic, Feb 2003.

“Ants offer lesson in urban living” The Guardian, Feb 2003.

News focus, “Getting the behavior of social insects to compute” (2002) Science, 295, 2357.

“Ant traffic flow: raiding swarms with few rules avoid gridlock”, Science News, Dec 2002.

BBC Radio 4 “The Today Programme”, “Of ants and men: traffic flow”, Jan 2003.

Radio South Africa “Future watch: ant traffic”, Jan 2003.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, “An urge to organize” Interview, Jan 2003.

BBC Radio 4 “Frontiers: self-organisation” (7th May, 2003).

Sky Network “Einstein TV” programme (November, 2001).

BBC Radio 4 “Nature: Natural Technology” (broadcast 14th and 15th May, 2001).

External referee for international journals

Includes: Nature; Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B; Journal of Theoretical Biology; Animal Behaviour.

Programming

C, C++, Java, Silicon Graphic's OpenGL 3-D graphics language, individual-based computer simulation, computer vision (particularly from live video input) and multiple-object tracking. Commercial applications: computer simulations for internationally broadcast BBC series, computer vision solutions for industry (international clients).