Scott Atran, PhD., received his B.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University. He is currently Research Director of ARTIS International, and Visiting Professor of Psychology and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He is tenured as Research Director in Anthropology at France’s National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, and he is also Senior Fellow and co-founder of the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflicts at Harris Manchester College and the Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford. Previously, Scott was assistant to Dr. Margaret Mead at the American Museum of Natural History and he has held positions at Cambridge University, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole de Philosophie in Paris.

Scott has experimented extensively on the ways scientists and ordinary people categorize and reason about nature, on the cognitive and evolutionary psychology of religion, and on the limits of rational choice in political and cultural conflict. He has repeatedly briefed NATO and members of the U.S. Congress and the National Security Council staff at the White House on the Devoted Actor versus the Rational Actor in Managing World Conflict, on the Comparative Anatomy and Evolution of Global Network Terrorism, and on Pathways to and from Violent Extremism. He has worked with the UN Security Council on problems relating to youth and violent extremism and he has been engaged in conflict negotiations in the Middle East, and in establishing indigenously managed forest reserves for Native American peoples.

For an overview of recent work in the Middle East and Europe, see Science News (July 2016): https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-studies-explore-why-ordinary-people-turn-terrorist