Scott Atran

Scott Atran, an anthropologist, is Director of Research, ARTIS Research and Risk Modeling; Research Director in Anthropology at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, France. He is also Visiting Professor of Psychology and Public Policy at the University of Michigan and Rresidential Scholar in Sociology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York City.

His wide-ranging, interdisciplinary approach to social, psychological and cultural issues, along with the unusual breadth and depth of his personal experience in both the Arab and Israeli Middle East, provides Atran's analysis of the roots of suicide terrorism a rare blend of intellectual and practical force.

His broadly interdisciplinary scientific studies have appeared in Science magazine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Journal of the History of Biology, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Annales-Economies-Sociétés-Civilisations, Politics and Society, Current Anthropology,American Ethnologist, Mind and Language, and Psychological Review. Work on the religious roots of suicide terrorism has been featured around the world by Reuters, the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, the Wall Street Journal, the Sunday Times, El Mundo (Spain), La Recherche (France), Der Spiegel (Germany), Il Sole 24 Ore (Italy), the BBC National and World Service, CTV (Canada), National Public Radio, ABC, MSNBC, Discovery Channel, and CNN radio and television.

Atran's books include Talking to the Enemy, the Cognitive Foundations of Natural History: Towards an Anthropology of Science, In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion, and The Native Mind: Cognition and Culture in Human Knowledge of Nature (co-authored with Douglas Medin and forthcoming from Oxford University Press). In addition to his work on the roots of terrorism, Atran conducts on-going research in Guatemala, Mexico, and the U.S. on universal and culture-specific aspects of biological categorization and environmental reasoning and decision making funded by France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and by the U.S. National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.