Andrew Whiten

David Andrew Whiten, known as Andrew Whiten (born 1948), is a British zoologist and psychologist, Professor of Evolutionary and Developmental Psychology, and Professor Wardlaw Emeritus at University of St Andrews in Scotland. He is known for his research in social cognition, specifically on social learning, tradition and the evolution of culture, social Machiavellian intelligence, autism and imitation, as well as the behavioral ecology of sociality. In 1996, Whiten and his colleagues invented an artificial fruit that allowed them to study learning in apes and humans.

Personal life and education Whiten was born in 1948 in Grimsby, England. He graduated with a degree in zoology from the University of Sheffield and achieved a PhD in Psychology at the University of Bristol.

Fellowships Whiten is member of the following learned societies: British Academy since 2000 British Psychological Society since 2000 Royal Society of Edinburgh since 2001 Cognitive Science Society since 2013

He was member of the Editorial Board of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences, from 2008 to 2013. He additionally chaired the Research Awards Committee of the British Academy from 2011 to 2013. the Rivers Memorial Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI), and the Osman Hill Medal of the Primate Society of Great Britain in 2007. He is the first and only scientist who was awarded both, the Sir James Black Medal (in 2014) and the Senior Prize and Medal for Public Engagement (in 2015) by the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

He was awarded an honorary doctor of the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh in 2015, of the University of Stirling in 2016, and of the University of Edinburgh in 2016/2017.