Simon Kirby#
| Membership Number: | 5105 |
| Membership type: | ORDINARY |
| Section: | LINGUISTIC STUDIES |
| Elected: | 2019 |
| Main Country of Residence: | UNITED KINGDOM |
| Homepage(s): | http://lel.ed.ac.uk/~simon |
Present and Previous Positions
- 2016 - present Director of the Centre for Language Evolution
- 2009 Professor of Language Evolution, University of Edinburgh
- 2005 - 2009 Reader, Linguistics & English Language, University of Edinburgh
- 2003 - 2005 Lecturer, Department of Linguistics, University of Edinburgh
- 2000 - 2003 British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Linguistics, University of Edinburgh
- 1996 - 2003 Researcher, Department of Linguistics, University of Edinburgh
- 1997 Visiting Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study Budapest
Fields of Scholarship
- Language evolution
- Cultural evolution
- Cognitive science
- Art/science collaboration
Honours and Awards
- 2019 Elected Fellow of the British Academy
- 2012 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 2012
- 2009 BAFTA Scotland award for Cybraphon. Cybraphon is an interactive artwork exploring issues of identity and communication in a densely connected world in the form of an autonomous emotional robotic band. Cybraphon has been covered by newspapers, magazines and TV stations across the world and was featured on the BBC’s Culture Show. It has appeared at the Edinburgh Art Festival, the Glasgow International Festival, the London Word Festival, and the De La Warr Pavilion “Nod to Cage” exhibition. It became the first device ever to win a BAFTA award in 2009, and is now part of the permanent collection of the National Museums Scotland and has its own room in the National Museum in Edinburgh where it bridges the Science and Art & Design galleries
