Dr Arsham Nejad Kourki
Arsham has a dual background in philosophy and biology, working in the intersection between them as a postdoctoral fellow at the Francis Crick Institute, London. His academic work revolves around fundamental themes in the life sciences, particularly the evolution of complex organisation across the tree of life, as well as more philosophical topics such as the structure of biological theory itself and whether the life sciences can ever be unified under a comprehensive theoretical framework. He is also interested in whether and how progress in the aforementioned might spill over into adjacent fields, especially the cognitive and social sciences.
Additionally, he is an amateur pianist and painter, and maintains an active interest in such topics as world history, linguistics, and the philosophy of religion.
Select publications
- Nejad Kourki, A. (2025). Early transitions in the evolution of cognition. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 47(4): 57. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-025-00709-y
- Nejad Kourki, A. (2025). Major transitions in sociocultural evolution. Evolutionary Human Sciences 7: e39. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2025.10021
- Madhani, H. & Nejad Kourki, A. (2024). The evolution of complex multicellularity in land plants. Genes 15(11): 1472. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes15111472
- Nejad Kourki, A. (2022). The evolution of complex multicellularity in animals. Biology & Philosophy 37(5): 43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-022-09870-1
- Nejad Kourki, A. (2022). Beyond congruence: evidential integration and inferring the best evolutionary scenario. Biology & Philosophy 37(5): 42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-022-09867-w
- Nejad Kourki, A. (2022). The integrative approach to inferring homology: morphology and development combined. Biology & Philosophy 37(4): 26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-022-09846-1
