Sean Brocklebank

I am a 2nd year economics PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, and I’m spending my entire summer in the USA, between the Library of Congress and the Santa Fe Institute.

1. What are your main interests?

My research area is evolutionary game theory, and my subject is the evolution of personality (Why do we have personalities? Why are they heritable?), but I am interested in both economics and psychology more broadly.

2. What sorts of [useful] expertise can you bring to the group?

Things I've taught/tutored over the past couple of years include: game theory, evolutionary game theory, general economics, and more specialized macroeconomics (eg business cycles or growth).

3. What do you hope to get out of the CSSS?

I’m hoping to learn techniques for richer types of agent-based modeling and to apply these to social evolution. I’d also like to have some good long chats about the philosophy underneath the methodologies that we’re learning (as well as the methodologies which are supplanted, of course).

4. Do you have any possible projects in mind for the CSSS?

Well, because of my interest in personality, I'd like to do a biology-type project where the result is (hopefully) that agents are pursuing a range of strategies which bear some resemblance to the personality traits that psychologists have found in humans and other animals.

Contact Details:

verarium@gmail.com

Cell: [001] (202) 713 - 4282