Professor James Marshall

School of Computer Science

Professor of Theoretical and Computational Biology

Director of the Centre for Machine Intelligence

Member of the Complex Systems Modelling research group

James Marshall CMI
Profile picture of James Marshall CMI
james.marshall@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 1832
Sir Frederick Mappin Building

Full contact details

Professor James Marshall
School of Computer Science
Sir Frederick Mappin Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Profile

I am an interdisciplinary researcher interested in behaviour, its mechanistic bases, and its evolution. With various colleagues I apply a variety of mathematical and computational approaches to understanding how and why behaviours evolve.

I am also interested in what engineering disciplines may learn from this study. Particular research interests include collective social insect behaviour, the evolution of social behaviour, and the application of decision theory to animal behaviour. Some of my research makes use of robotics to test these ideas.

Research interests

My research interests cover modelling of collective behaviour, particularly in social insects, evolutionary theory, decision theory, robotics, and theoretical neuroscience

Publications

Books

  • Marshall JAR (2015) Social Evolution and Inclusive Fitness Theory: An Introduction. Princeton University Press.

Journal articles

  • MaBouDi H, Roper M, Guiraud M-G, Juusola M, Chittka L & Marshall JAR (2025) . eLife, 14.
  • Marshall JAR & Barron AB (2025) . npj Robotics, 3.
  • MaBouDi H, Richter J, Guiraud M-G, Roper M, Marshall JAR & Chittka L (2025) . eLife, 14.
  • Marshall JAR & Reina A (2024) . Animal Behaviour, 210, 189-197.
  • MaBouDi H, Marshall JAR, Dearden N & Barron AB (2023) . eLife, 12.
  • Reina A, Bose T, Srivastava V & Marshall JAR (2023) . Royal Society Open Science, 10(3).
  • Zenil H, Marshall JAR & Tegnér J (2023) . Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 16.
  • Marshall JAR, Reina A, Hay C, Dussutour A & Pirrone A (2022) . PLoS Computational Biology, 18(10).
  • de Croon GCHE, Dupeyroux JJG, Fuller SB & Marshall JAR (2022) . Science Robotics, 7(67).
  • Reina A & Marshall JAR (2022) . PLoS Computational Biology, 18(5).
  • Pirrone A, Reina A, Stafford T, Marshall JAR & Gobet F (2022) . Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(1), 66-80.
  • Saha A, Marshall JAR & Reina A (2021) . PLoS ONE, 16(11).
  • Chandrasekhar A, Marshall JAR, Austin C, Navlakha S & Gordon DM (2021) . PLoS Computational Biology, 17(10).
  • Talamali MS, Saha A, Marshall JAR & Reina A (2021) . Science Robotics, 6(56).
  • MaBouDi H, Barron AB, Li S, Honkanen M, Loukola OJ, Peng F, Li W, Marshall JAR, Cope A, Vasilaki E & Solvi C (2021) . Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 288(1945).
  • Marshall J (2021) . New Scientist, 249(3322), 23-23.
  • MaBouDi H, Marshall JAR & Barron AB (2020) . Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 287(1934).
  • Talamali MS, Bose T, Haire M, Xu X, Marshall JAR & Reina A (2020) . Swarm Intelligence, 14, 25-56.
  • Bose T, Bottom F, Reina A & Marshall JAR (2020) . Computational Brain & Behavior, 3(1), 66-85.
  • Bose T, Pirrone A, Reina A & Marshall JAR (2020) . Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 94.
  • Marshall JAR, Reina A & Bose T (2019) . PLOS ONE, 14(9).
  • Bose T, Reina A & Marshall JAR (2019) . Neural Computation, 31(5), 870-896.
  • Marshall JAR, Kurvers RHJM, Krause J & Wolf M (2019) . eLife, 8.
  • Cope AJ, Vasilaki E, Minors D, Sabo C, Marshall JAR & Barron AB (2018) . PLoS Computational Biology, 14(9).
  • Booton RD, Yamaguchi R, Marshall JAR, Childs DZ & Iwasa Y (2018) . Journal of Theoretical Biology, 445, 120-127.
  • Reina A, Bose T, Trianni V & Marshall JAR (2018) . Scientific Reports, 8.
  • Pirrone A, Azab H, Hayden BY, Stafford T & Marshall JAR (2018) . Decision, 5(2), 129-142.
  • Marshall JAR, Brown G & Radford AN (2017) . Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 32(9), 636-645.
  • Ramírez JC & Marshall JAR (2017) . J Theor Biol, 426, 57-66.
  • Bose T, Reina A & Marshall JAR (2017) . Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 16, 30-34.
  • Pirrone A, Marshall JAR & Stafford T (2017) . Journal of Numerical Cognition, 3(1), 77-96.
  • Reina A, Marshall JAR, Trianni V & Bose T (2017) . PHYSICAL REVIEW E, 95(5).
  • Reina A, Cope A, Nikolaidis E, Marshall J & Sabo C (2017) . IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2(3), 1755-1761.
  • Booton RD, Iwasa Y, Marshall JAR & Childs DZ (2017) . Journal of Theoretical Biology, 420, 213-219.
  • Cope AJ, Sabo C, Vasilaki E, Barron AB & Marshall JA (2017) . PLoS One, 12(2).
  • Marshall JAR (2016) . Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 12, 103-108.
  • Reid CR, MacDonald H, Mann RP, Marshall JAR, Latty T & Garnier S (2016) . Interface, 13(119).
  • Cope AJ, Sabo C, Gurney K, Vasilaki E & Marshall JAR (2016) . PLoS Comput Biol, 12(5).
  • Marshall JAR (2016) . BioScience, 66(3), 185-185.
  • Barron AB, Gurney KN, Meah LFS, Vasilaki E & Marshall JAR (2015) . Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 9.
  • Fawcett TW, Marshall JAR & Higginson AD (2015) The Evolution of Mechanisms Underlying Behaviour. Current Zoology, 61(2), 221-225.
  • Ramirez JC & Marshall JAR (2015) Self-deception can evolve under appropriate costs. Current Zoology, 61(2), 382-396.
  • Marshall JAR, Favreau-Peigne A, Fromhage L, McNamara JM, Meah LFS & Houston AI (2015) Cross inhibition improves activity selection when switching incurs time costs. Current Zoology, 61(2), 242-250.
  • Marshall JAR (2015) . BioScience, 65(3), 328-329.
  • Osinga HM & Marshall JAR (2015) . PLOS ONE, 10(2).
  • Birch J & Marshall JAR (2014) . The American Naturalist, 184(4), 531-540.
  • Pirrone A, Stafford T & Marshall JAR (2014) . Front Neurosci, 8, 73.
  • Cassey TC, Evens DR, Bogacz R, Marshall JAR & Ludwig CJH (2013) . PLOS ONE, 8(11).
  • Pais D, Hogan PM, Schlegel T, Franks NR, Leonard NE & Marshall JAR (2013) . PLOS ONE, 8(9).
  • Marshall JAR, Trimmer PC & Houston AI (2013) . Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
  • Marshall JAR, Trimmer PC, Houston AI & McNamara JM (2013) . Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
  • Franks NR, Richardson TO, Kirby RW, Amos WMD, Schlegel T, Stroeymeyt N, Hogan PM & Marshall JAR (2013) . Animal Behaviour.
  • Zenil H & Marshall JAR (2013) . Ubiquity, 2013, 1:1-1:16.
  • Zenil H, Gershenson C, Marshall JAR & Rosenblueth DA (2012) . ENTROPY, 14(11), 2173-2191.
  • Marshall JAR, Bogacz R & Gilchrist ID (2012) . PLoS ONE, 7(9).
  • Trimmer PC, Houston AI, Marshall JAR, Fromhage L & McNamara JM (2012) . Evolution and Human Behavior.
  • Franklin EL, Robinson EJH, Marshall JAR, Sendova-Franks AB & Franks NR (2012) . JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY, 215(8), 1287-1292.
  • Trimmer PC, McNamara JM, Houston AI & Marshall JAR (2012) . Journal of Theoretical Biology, 302, 39-52.
  • Houston AI, Trimmer PC, Fawcett TW, Higginson AD, Marshall JAR & McNamara JM (2012) . Behavioural Processes, 89(2), 172-178.
  • Seeley TD, Visscher PK, Schlegel T, Hogan PM, Franks NR & Marshall JAR (2012) . SCIENCE, 335(6064), 108-111.
  • Marshall JAR (2011) . TRENDS ECOL EVOL, 26(7), 325-332.
  • Robinson EJH, Franks NR, Ellis S, Okuda S & Marshall JAR (2011) . PLOS ONE, 6(5).
  • Abbot P, Abe J, Alcock J, Alizon S, Alpedrinha JAC, Andersson M, Andre J-B, van Baalen M, Balloux F, Balshine S , Barton N et al (2011) . Nature, 471(7339), E1-E4.
  • Stroeymeyt N, Robinson EJH, Hogan PM, Marshall JAR, Giurfa M & Franks NR (2011) . BEHAV ECOL, 22(3), 535-542.
  • Trimmer PC, Houston AI, Marshall JAR, Mendl MT, Paul ES & McNamara JM (2011) . ANIM COGN, 14(4), 465-476.
  • Trianni V, Tuci E, Passino KM & Marshall JAR (2011) . Swarm Intelligence, 5(1), 3-18.
  • Marshall JAR (2011) . BEHAV ECOL SOCIOBIOL, 65(3), 503-512.
  • Marshall JAR, McNamara JM & Houston AI (2011) . BEHAV ECOL SOCIOBIOL, 65(3), 417-420.
  • McNamara JM, Trimmer PC, Eriksson A, Marshall JAR & Houston AI (2011) . Ecology Letters, 14(1), 58-62.
  • Marshall JAR (2011) . Journal of Theoretical Biology, 270(1), 185-188.
  • Marshall JAR (2009) . J THEOR BIOL, 260(3), 386-391.
  • Marshall JAR & Franks NR (2009) Colony-level cognition. CURR BIOL, 19(10), R395-R396.
  • Marshall JAR, Bogacz R, Dornhaus A, Planque R, Kovacs T & Franks NR (2009) . J R SOC INTERFACE, 6(40), 1065-1074.
  • Trimmer PC, Houston AI, Marshall JAR, Bogacz R, Paul ES, Mendl MT & McNamara JM (2008) . P R SOC B, 275(1649), 2353-2361.
  • Planque R, Dechaume-Moncharmont FX, Franks NR, Kovacs T & Marshall JAR (2007) . NATURWISSENSCHAFTEN, 94(11), 911-918.
  • Franks NR, Hooper JW, Gumn M, Bridger TH, Gross R, Dornhaus A & Marshall J (2007) . Swarm Intelligence, 1(2), 81-94.
  • Planque R, Dornhaus A, Franks NR, Kovacs T & Marshall JAR (2007) . BEHAV ECOL SOCIOBIOL, 61(3), 347-356.
  • Marshall JAR, Dornhaus A, Franks NR & Kovacs T (2006) . J R SOC INTERFACE, 3(7), 243-254.
  • Song * D, Zhang J, Carter J, Field T, Marshall J, Polak J, Schumacher K, Sinha-Ray P & Woods J (2005) . Maritime Policy & Management, 32(1), 15-30.
  • Marshall JAR (2004) . Artificial Life, 10(1), 113-115.
  • Marshall JAR & Rowe JE (2003) . J THEOR BIOL, 222(3), 331-335.
  • Wright IP & Marshall J (2003) The execution kernel of RC++: RETE*, a faster RETE with TREAT as a special case. International Journal of Intelligent Games and Simulation, 2, 36-38.
  • Marshall JAR (2003) Conflicting agents: Conflict management in multi-agent systems. JASSS, 6(1).
  • Marshall JAR & Rowe JE (2003) Viscous populations and their support for reciprocal cooperation. ARTIF LIFE, 9(3), 327-334.
  • Richardson TO, Mullon C, Marshall JAR, Franks NR & Schlegel T () . Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 285(1872).
  • Quickfall CG & Marshall JAR () . Ecology and Evolution.
  • Marshall JAR () . Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 2.
  • Zenil H & Marshall J () . Nature Precedings.

Book chapters

  • Cope AJ, Ahmed A, Isa F & Marshall JAR (2019) , Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 76-87). Springer International Publishing
  • Marshall J & Neumann F (2013) Foundations of Search: A Perspective from Computer Science In Todd PM, Hill TT & Robbins TW (Ed.), Cognitive Search: Evolution, Algorithms and the Brain MIT Press
  • Schooler L, Burgess C, Goldstone RL, Fu W, Gavrilets S, Lazer D, Marshall J, Neumann F & Wiener JM (2012) Search environments, representation, and encoding In Todd PM, Hills TT & Robbins TW (Ed.), Cognitive Search: Evolution, Algorithms and the Brain MIT Press
  • Marshall JAR, Bogacz R, Dornhaus A, Planqué R, Kovacs T & Franks NR (2011) , Modelling Natural Action Selection (pp. 500-522). Cambridge University Press
  • Franks NR, Dornhaus A, Marshall JAR & Moncharmont F-XD (2009) , Organization of Insect Societies (pp. 437-459). Harvard University Press
  • Marshall JAR, Franks NR, Dornhaus A & Dechaume Moncharmont FX (2009) The Dawn of a Golden Age in Mathematical Insect Sociobiology In Gadau J, Fewell J & Wilson EO (Ed.), Organization of insect societies: from genome to sociocomplexity (pp. 437-458). Harvard Univ Pr
  • Marshall JAR & Franks NR (2007) Computer modelling in behavioral and evolutionary ecology: whys and wherefores. In Laubichler MD & Müller GB (Ed.), Modeling biology: Structures, Behaviors, Evolution (pp. 335-354). The MIT Press

Conference proceedings

  • Pirrone A, Reina A & Marshall JAR (2021) Multi-alternative magnitude-sensitive perceptual decision making: evidence and implications. PERCEPTION, Vol. 50(1_SUPPL) (pp 224-224)
  • Talamali MS, Marshall J, Bose T & Reina A (2019) . 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Montreal, Canada, 20 May 2019 - 20 May 2019.
  • Pinciroli C, Talamali MS, Reina A, Marshall J & Trianni V (2018) . Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2018), Vol. 11172 (pp 176-187). Rome, Italy, 29 October 2018 - 29 October 2018.
  • Font Llenas A, Talamali M, Xu X, Marshall J & Reina A (2018) . Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2018), Vol. 11172 (pp 135-149). Rome, Italy, 29 October 2018 - 29 October 2018.
  • Reina A, Bose T, Trianni V & Marshall JAR (2018) . Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems , Vol. 6 (pp 461-473). London, UK, 6 November 2016 - 6 November 2016.
  • Sabo C, Yavuz E, Cope A, Gurney K, Vasilaki E, Nowotny T & Marshall JAR (2017) . 2017 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN) (pp 4171-4178). Anchorage, Alaska
  • Sabo C, Cope A, Gurney K, Vasilaki E & Marshall JAR (2016) . AIAA Infotech @ Aerospace, AIAA SciTech. San Diego, CA, 4 January 2016 - 4 January 2016.
  • Cope A, Sabo C, Vasilaki E, Gurney K & Marshall JAR (2015) . BMC Neuroscience, Vol. 16(S1)
  • Nowotny T, Cope AJ, Yavuz E, Stimberg M, Goodman DFM, Marshall J & Gurney K (2014) . BMC Neuroscience, Vol. 15(S1)
  • Cope A, Sabo C, Yavuz E, Gurney K, Marshall J, Nowotny T & Vasilaki E (2013) (pp 362-363)
  • Marshall JAR (2011) Optimal voting in groups with convergent interests. Aaai Spring Symposium Technical Report, Vol. SS-11-08 (pp 12-16)
  • Marshall JAR & Hinton TG (2010) Beyond No Free Lunch: Realistic Algorithms for Arbitrary Problem Classes. 2010 IEEE CONGRESS ON EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION (CEC)
  • Edakunni NU, Kovacs T, Brown G & Marshall JAR (2009) . Proceedings of the 11th Annual Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Gecco 2009 (pp 1187-1194)
  • Marshall JAR, Brown G & Kovacs T (2007) . Proceedings of Gecco 2007 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion Material (pp 2831-2834)
  • Brown G, Kovacs T & Marshall JAR (2007) . Proceedings of Gecco 2007 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (pp 1774-1781)
  • Marshall JAR & Kovacs T (2006) A representational ecology for learning classifier systems. GECCO 2006: Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, Vol 1 and 2 (pp 1529-1536)
  • Cayzer S, Smith J, Marshall JAR & Kovacs T (2005) What have gene libraries done for AIS?. ARTIFICIAL IMMUNE SYSTEMS, PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 3627 (pp 86-99)
  • Marshall JAR & Tokumine S (2004) See how she runs: Towards visualising artificial Red Queen evolution. Artificial Life IX (pp 334-339)
  • Marshall JAR, Kovacs T, Dornhaus AR & Franks NR (2003) Simulating the evolution of ant behaviour in evaluating nest sites. ADVANCES IN ARTIFICIAL LIFE, PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 2801 (pp 643-650)
  • Marshall J () Investigating the mechanisms underlying cooperation in viscous population multi-agent systems. MIT Press (pp 348-352)
  • Wright IP & Marshall J () RC++: A rule-based language for game AI. First International Conference on Intelligent Games and Simulation
  • Wright IP & Marshall J () Egocentric AI Processing for Computer Entertainment: A Real-Time Process Manager for Games. First International Conference on Intelligent Games and Simulation

Reports

  • Nikolaidis E, Sabo C, Marshall J & Reina A (2017) Characterisation and upgrade of the communication between overhead controllers and Kilobots
  • Marshall JAR (2003)

Software, code or databases

  • MaBouDi H, Barron A, Marshall J, Cope A, Vasilaki E & Solvi C .
  • Marshall J, Reina A, Bose T, Dennison R & Furnass W .

Theses

  • Marshall JAR An Investigation into Kin Selection and Reciprocal Cooperation in a Viscous Population. De Montfort University.

Datasets

  • MaBouDi H, Marshall J & Barron A .

Other

  • Marshall J, Reina A & Bose T () .

Preprints

  • MaBouDi H, Marshall JAR, Dearden N & Barron AB (2023) , Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
  • Reina A, Bose T, Srivastava V & Marshall JAR (2022) , Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
  • Marshall JAR (2019) , Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
  • Saha A, Marshall JAR & Reina A (2019) , arXiv.
  • Chandrasekhar A, Marshall JAR, Austin C, Navlakha S & Gordon DM (2019) , Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
  • Reina A, Marshall JAR, Trianni V & Bose T (2016) , arXiv.
  • Zenil H, Marshall JAR & Tegnér J (2015) , arXiv.
  • Zenil H & Marshall JAR (2012) , arXiv.
  • Marshall JAR & Hinton TG (2009) , arXiv.
Grants
  • ActiveAI: , EPSRC, 11/2019 - 10/2024, £953,584, as Co-PI
  • Swarm Awareness, Government, 08/2018 - 08/2021, £226,567, as PI
  • , EPSRC, 12/2016 -  06/2022, £2,128,934, as PI
  • , EC - H2020, 08/2015 - 11/2020, £1,168,351, as PI
  • Comparative neuroscience and computational neuroscience, Leverhulme Trust, 04/2018 - 07/2020, £72,016, as PI
  • Analysing and modelling decision making in the honey bee brain, Royal Society, 03/2015 - 03/2017, £12,000, as PI
  • , EPSRC, 03/2013 - 08/2016, £660,561, as PI
  • , BBSRC, 10/2010 - 10/2012, £145,732, as PI
  • , EPSRC, 08/2008 - 07/2012, £306,386, as Co PI
  • AIBACS - Social Insects, Simulated Evolution and Biologically Inspired Algorithms, EPSRC, 01/2004 - 07/2006, £127,271, as Co-PI
Professional activities and memberships
  • Editorial Board, Swarm Intelligence (2017-present)
  • Associate Editor: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (2013-2017)
  • EPSRC Peer Review College Member (2010-present)
  • Member of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Panel College (2019-present)
  • Associate Editor - PLoS one - 2009-2020
  • Associate Editor - PLoS Computational Biology - 2020-present
  • Founder Science Officer at Opteran Technologies 

Links

Centre for Machine Intelligence