Roger Bingham

Roger Bingham
Born	1948 (1948) Blackpool, Lancashire, England
Died	21 October 2023(2023-10-21) (aged 74–75) San Diego, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University College London[1][2]
Known for	Co-founder and director of the Science Network (TSN) Creator and Host of television series The Human Quest Co-author of The Origin of Minds: Evolution, Uniqueness, and the New Science of the Self Co-author of science-based novel Wild Card
Spouse	Sheila Rodwell ​ ​ (m. 1970, divorced)​
Awards	Writers Guild of America Award
Scientific career
Fields	Neuroscience Science communication
Institutions	Salk Institute for Biological Studies University of California, San Diego

Roger Bingham (1948 – 21 October 2023) was a British science educator, author and television host based in

Life and career

Bingham developed the Science and Society Unit at the Los Angeles

From 1995 to 1996, Bingham was a visiting associate at Caltech in the laboratory of evolutionary neuroscientist, John Allman and a visiting fellow at the Center for Evolutionary Psychology, UC Santa Barbara (co-directed by John Tooby and Leda Cosmides). Bingham and Peggy La Cerra presented an alternative to the model of evolutionary psychology, first in a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,^[9] then in The Origin of Minds: Evolution, Uniqueness, and the New Science of the Self. This model was based on the concept of adaptive representational networks (ARN). According to this theory, these networks encode the history of an individual's behavioural successes and failures in relationship to the energy costs of any particular behaviour. Hence, memory becomes an accounting mechanism for computing the energy costs of behaviour.^[10] La Cerra and Bingham called this model "Theoretical Evolutionary Neuroscience".^[9]

After the publication of The Origin of Minds, Bingham turned his attention to developing a platform for science education and communication. In 2003, with Terry Sejnowski, he initiated the project that became known as the Science Network.^[11] The launch of The Science Network was a landmark Symposium and Town Hall meeting, Stem cells: science, ethics and politics at the crossroads, held at the Salk Institute in 2004.^[12][13] Roger Bingham served as the director of the Science Network.

Bingham was an affiliate of the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory at the

In 2009, Bingham was named a member of the Board of Advisers of Scientific American.^[18]

Bingham died in San Diego, California on 21 October 2023.^[19]

Books

• The Origin of Minds: Evolution, Uniqueness, and the New Science of the Self (2002) Peggy La Cerra and Roger Bingham
• Wild Card (1974) Raymond Hawkey and Roger Bingham

Awards

• Writers Guild of America Award in Documentary, Current Events, The Human Quest: The Nature Of Human Nature, 1996, with Carl Byker^[7][8]
• American Psychological Association Award for Excellence in Television, Inside Information: The Brain and How It Works, 1992, with John Rubin^[20]
• National Magazine Award in Public Interest, Technology for Peace: The Politics of Mistrust, Science, 1986^[21]

External links

• The Science Network
• Edge Question 2008: What Have You Changed Your Mind About? Why?
• Edge Question 2007: What Are You Optimistic About?