Collegium Helveticum
Switzerland
fellow
Sebastián Michel Mata
2026-2027
Discipline(s)
Biology; Genetics; Others
Theme(s)
Behavior & Cognition; Cultural Studies; Other
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
Sebastián Michel Mata investigates the origins and evolution of culture in humans and other animals. His research explores how social interactions among individuals can give rise to group-level organization and behavior that create the conditions for culture to emerge. Using mathematical and computational models, he brings together questions from the social sciences with evolutionary theory to uncover the fundamental principles underlying the emergence of culture across species.
Before joining the Collegium, Sebastián earned a PhD and an MA in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, together with a Graduate Certificate in Computational Science and Engineering, from Princeton University (US). He also holds a BSc in Technology from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (MX) and a BSc in Anthropology from the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro (MX). His interdisciplinary background continues to shape his research at the interface of the natural and social sciences.
Research Project
Becoming Cultural: An Evolutionary-Developmental Model of the Origins of Culture
Many species can acquire information and behaviors through social interactions, a prerequisite for culture to arise. Yet only some species sustain culture in the wild, and even fewer come to depend on it in ways that affect survival and reproduction.
Sebastián Michel Mata’s project investigates the evolutionary origins of culture in humans and other animals. It asks how socially acquired information comes to persist across generations, giving rise to culture in some populations but not others of the same species. It further asks why, in rare cases such as humans, individuals come to depend on culture to develop and function in society.
Taking an evolutionary-developmental perspective, Sebastián proposes an empirically informed theoretical framework in which culture is understood as an emergent property of the dynamic relationship between individual development and the social systems individuals collectively construct. His goal is to identify the conditions under which socially acquired information remains ephemeral, stabilizes into culture, or becomes a necessary component of development.
Research Interests:
species; social interactions; culture; survival; reproduction