Professesor Kim Sterelny from the School of Philosophy has been awarded an Australian Laureate Fellowship through the Australian Research Council.  Seventeen of Australia's most outstanding researchers will share in $47 million of research funding, as announced on 9 July by Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. 

Professor Sterelny's project is The Origins of Inequality, Hierarchy and Social Complexity.  Despite obvious failures, humans cooperate far more than other mammals.  This project explains how we came to be so unlike other animals; how our cooperative practices transformed; and how those practices changed, as human societies became increasingly complex after the invention of farming.

Professor Sterelny is the winner of several international prizes in the philosophy of science, and editor of the journal Biology and Philosophy. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

The Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme reflects the Commonwealth’s commitment to support excellence in research by attracting world-class researchers and research leaders to key positions, and creating new rewards and incentives for the application of their talents in Australia.

Open to applications from outstanding researchers of international repute, the Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme encourages proposals involving Australian and international researchers by providing eligible Australian Laureate Fellows with Project Funding in addition to a salary supplement and salary-related (on-cost) support.

For more information on the Australian Leaureate Fellowships is available here.