Iain Couzin receives the Hector Science Award

How do collective motion and intelligence arise in animals - be it in flocks of birds, swarms of locusts, schools of fish, or human crowds and societies? What neurological structures and principles govern the concerted actions of thousands of individuals? These are some of the questions that Iain Couzin addresses in his research. For his outstanding contributions to the field of collective behaviour, he has been awarded the Hector Science Award of the Hector Foundation II. The foundation's board formally presented the award on 30 January 2026 in Heidelberg, with previous award recipients being present. Alongside Couzin, the biochemist Stefanie Dimmeler from the Goethe University Frankfurt also received the Hector Science Award, which is endowed with a personal award of 200,000 euros per awardee.

"I am deeply honoured to receive the Hector Science Award. This recognition reflects the collective efforts of my students, postdocs, and collaborators, whose creativity and dedication drive our work to understand how coordinated behaviour and decision-making emerge in natural systems", says Couzin. He is a Professor of Biology at the University of Konstanz, Director at the Max Plank Institute of Animal Behavior, and Speaker of the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour (CASCB), which is a joint initiative of both institutions.

"I extend my heartfelt congratulations to Iain Couzin on this extraordinary honour. We are immensely proud that he is part of our community. His excellent work greatly enriches research and teaching at the University of Konstanz", says Katharina Holzinger, Rector of the University of Konstanz. "This prestigious distinction for Iain Couzin also sends an important signal about our research focus on collective behaviour. It demonstrates that our Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour continues to be on the rise, even as its funding as a Cluster of Excellence comes to a close."

A pioneer in quantitative behavioural biology
Iain Couzin is a pioneer in quantitative behavioural biology, a field that applies rigorous data-driven and theoretical approaches to the study of animal behaviour. His work has shaped fundamental advances in our understanding of how groups - from insects to humans - organize, coordinate movement, and make decisions collectively.

Hallmarks of his work are a highly interdisciplinary approach and the use of advanced technology to study collective behaviour at an unprecedented scale. He and his team develop and employ high-precision tracking systems, AI-supported analysis tools, and even virtual reality environments for animals. These methods make it possible to follow and analyse the actions of thousands of individuals simultaneously, generating vast datasets that allow the researchers to decipher how interactions between individuals bring about coordinated group behaviour and collective intelligence.

The implications of Couzin's research have challenged conventional views of how collective motion arises in nature. Extending well beyond biology, his insights into collective behaviour - including the role of neural synchronization in coordinating group movement - have influenced fields such as robotics, where researchers design swarms of autonomous machines, as well as the social sciences.

Widely cited and internationally honoured
Couzin's scientific influence is reflected in the reach of his publications, many of which are published in top-tier journals and are among the most cited worldwide. Seven times between 2018 and 2025, he was on the Clarivate Analytics list of "Global Highly Cited Researchers". His work has been recognized with prestigious awards before, including the Fyssen International Prize in 2024, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 2022, the Lagrange Prize in 2019, and the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London in 2018. In 2025, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society - the national academy of sciences of the United Kingdom and the world's oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.

About the Hector Science Award
One of the Hector Foundations' key priorities is supporting outstanding research achievements. Since 2009 the Hector Foundation II has awarded the annual Hector Science Award, which is endowed with a personal award of 200,000 euros. The award honours professors at German universities and research institutions for their groundbreaking research contributions and their exceptional commitment to teaching and fostering young scientific talent. In addition, awardees become members of the Hector Fellow Academy, a young science academy founded in 2013 with the goal to strengthen Germany as a centre for research and science by supporting early-career researchers and funding interdisciplinary projects between its members to contribute to solving global challenges. Past recipients of the award include professors from different disciplines within the natural and engineering sciences, psychology, and medicine.

Key facts:

• In recognition of his outstanding research achievements in the field of collective behaviour, Professor Iain Couzin FRS received the Hector Science Award and was appointed a member of the Hector Fellow Academy. It is endowed with a personal award of 200,000 euros.
• Iain Couzin FRS is Professor of Biodiversity and Collective Behaviour at the University of Konstanz, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, and Speaker of the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour at the University of Konstanz.
• The Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour (CASCB) is a global hotspot for the study of collective behaviour across a wide range of species and across scales of organization. It is a joint initiative of the University of Konstanz and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. From 2019 to 2027 the CASCB is funded as a Cluster of Excellence within the framework of the German Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments.