Hi, I'm Athena Aktipis, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University, Director of The Cooperation Lab and co-Director of The Cooperation Science Network and The Human Generosity Project. I study cooperation across systems from human sharing to cancer. I'm also the founder of Zombified Media and the host of the podcast, Zombified. I am passionate about building interdisciplinary teams to tackle tough questions, empowering students to learn about the topics they are most curious about, and leveraging cooperation theory to improve our universities and the broader communities in which we are all embedded.

 

I am currently on tour for my second book, A Field Guide to the Apocalypse: A mostly serious guide to surviving our wild times. The tour, called The Apocalypse Road Show, is about how we need cooperation, curiosity and a sense of adventure to prepare for the challenges we are facing in our uncertain times. I am also traveling to speak about my first book, The Cheating Cell: How evolution helps us understand and treat cancer.

 

When COVID-19 was on the verge of becoming a pandemic, I started the Cooperation in the Apocalypse project to better understand how crises affect cooperation, interdependence and other social behaviors.