Meet Roman, a lifelong student of human behaviour. Roman completed his Bachelor’s degree in his hometown Amsterdam at the University of Applied Sciences. More recently, he graduated with a Master’s degree in Evolutionary, Comparative, and Developmental Psychology from the University of St. Andrews, where he was fortunate enough to conduct experimental research with chimpanzees and human participants. More specifically, his research focused on emotional contagion, facial mimicry, and intergroup relations in chimpanzees, in order to shed more light on the evolutionary psychology of humans.

Currently, Roman is working as a Research Assistant inside the CoPAN lab at the University of Leiden. His current research focuses on the evolutionary origins of creativity and art. During this research project, Roman will seek to compare the performance of two human groups with that of two species of great apes, the common chimpanzee and the orangutan—as these are our closest and most distant relatives within the group of nonhuman great apes.

Moreover, he has always been fascinated by how certain ideas, trends, or social behaviours can spread like wildfire while others cannot even compete. If he’s not working, travelling, or studying, you will likely find him reading, writing, randomly conversing with strangers, or fiddling with his camera.