Lars Chittka is a biologist whose work has transformed our understanding of animal intelligence by demonstrating that bees, despite their tiny brains, exhibit advanced cognitive abilities such as counting, attention, emotion-like states, flexible object manipulation, and social learning. His research shows that complex behaviours and cognition can emerge from relatively small neural circuits, challenging common assumptions about the minimal neural requirements for cognition. Through computational modelling and psychological experiments, his team has linked individual cognitive variation to fitness and neural architecture.
Lars’ discoveries have inspired new directions in neuroethology, behavioural ecology, and philosophy of mind, reshaping how scientists think about cognition and its evolution. He is the author of the popular science book The Mind of a Bee (Princeton University Press, 2022). Lars is a recipient of Exemplar Award of the Animal Behaviour Society, the Founders’ Memorial Award of the Entomological Society of America and the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.
Professional position
- Professor of Sensory and Behavioural Ecology, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London
