About Dr Helen Taylor
Dr Helen Taylor is the originator of the theory of Complementary Cognition,
A new theory of human evolution and collaborative intelligence, with wide-ranging implications, from business and innovation to sustainability. She is currently an affiliated researcher at the McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge.
She writes and speaks internationally about her work for academic, industry, government, NGO and general audiences. Her article in Frontiers in Psychology ranks in the top 5% of all Frontiers articles for views and downloads, and her research has been featured in more than 100 news outlets around the world. She has appeared on the BBC’s flagship science programme The Sky at Night and co-authored the award-nominated book The Dyslexic Edge: Unleash the Power of Thinking Differently.
Following her PhD from the University of Cambridge, Dr Taylor held a Research Fellowship at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation at the University of Strathclyde, where she further developed Complementary Cognition. Her work combined interview-based research on entrepreneurs with theoretical development, connecting insights from this research with computational neuroscience and advancing her account of how the proposed evolutionary system functions.
Dr Taylor’s research and expertise span cognitive and computational neuroscience, evolutionary theory, archaeology, complex systems theory and economics to examine the evidence for Complementary Cognition and to refine and extend the theory. She was awarded funding by the Cultural Evolution Society through funding from the John Templeton Foundation.
It was a particular honour to be featured in the book Love Dyslexia, commissioned by Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia of Sweden to raise awareness of the strengths associated with dyslexia and the suffering and loss of potential that result from marginalisation.
Her work is regularly referenced in publications including New Scientist, Forbes, Psychology Today, BBC Science Focus, Sky News, as well as leading publications based in Europe, Asia, Australasia and the US, where she was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article on California governor Gavin Newsom.
I would like to share what I have discovered with wider audiences – business and policy leaders, schools and charities, people with dyslexia and forms of ADHD who might better understand their ways of thinking as broad exploration, parents and carers, and those whose aim is to reconnect people with the natural world and make a sustainable future for all of us.
