CWU’s Phi Kappa Phi Scholar to Present “Evolutionary Thinking and Society”

CWU’s 2016 Phi Kappa Phi Scholar of the Year, Professor Lixing Sun, will present “Evolutionary Thinking And Society: A Biologist's Venture into the World of His Own Species,” on December 2, at 3:30 p.m. in Science I, Room 216. Admission is free and open to the public.

Sun, a professor of biological sciences, has been at CWU since 1996. During his tenure he has authored or co-authored more than 30 scholarly papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals. His research ranges from developing new statistical methods for sampling beaver dispersal, to the interplay between biology and culture in human kinship. Sun has also authored three popular and critically-acclaimed books, with a fourth one in progress. These books have received awards and popular use in the fields of science education, biology, and the emerging field of the evolutionary psychology of fairness.

His third book, The Fairness Instinct: The Robin Hood Mentality and our Biological Nature, was published by Prometheus Books in 2013, and analyzes the psychological, social, and evolutionary consequences of the concept of fairness in different societies both past and present. The book has attracted great interest and critical acclaim as it has become an important foundation of an exciting new discipline within the field of animal behavior and evolution.

Sun has also mentored numerous undergraduate and graduate students in their own projects and subsequent publications, and is a long-time member (and former director) of CWU’s Primate Behavior and Ecology Program. He employs a multidisciplinary approach to studying the evolution of human behavior, society, and culture. His interests and methods also draw upon anthropology, chemistry, mathematics, psychology, sociology, and economics. For these reasons and more, Lixing Sun was selected as the 2016 CWU Phi Kappa Phi Scholar of the Year.

For more information, contact Dr. Robert Holtfreter, PKP President, at holtfret@cwu.edu or 963-2144.
December 1, 2016