Jacob Foster is a Professor of Cognitive Science and Informatics at Indiana University Bloomington and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. After studying mathematical physics at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship (2003-2006), he received his PhD in statistical physics and complex systems from the University of Calgary (2010). He then trained as a social scientist at the University of Chicago, where he was a postdoctoral scholar and research assistant professor (2010-2013). Before coming to Indiana University, he spent a decade on the faculty at UCLA (2013-2023), where he was most recently Professor of Sociology. He was also an Infosys Member at the Institute for Advanced Study in 2020-2021. In his research, Jacob tries to understand the basic principles behind natural and artificial intelligences (individual and collective). He blends computational methods with qualitative insights to study the social production of collective intelligence (especially in science); the evolutionary dynamics of ideas; and the co-construction of culture and cognition. He is also working to reimagine social science as a science of the possible. He is the founding Co-Director of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, a program that aims to build community, collaboration, and creative thinking among early career scholars interested in the study of mind, cognition, and intelligence of diverse forms and formats—from ants and apes to humans and AI. Together with Erica Cartmill, he directs the new Center for Possible Minds at Indiana University.

Presentation Video Link: Computing Culture Towards Morhpodynamics