William von Hippel is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland. William has published over 100 articles and his research has been widely reported in the media, including The New York Times ‘100 Ideas of the Year’. William's recent book, The Social Leap, traces our archaeological history to help us understand who we are, where we come from, and what makes us happy. The Social Leap received the 2019 Book Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and William’s interviews about the book have been downloaded over five million times. This painting depicts William reimagined as a Homo erectus, our ancestor who first emerged in Africa two million years ago, and created a new kind of intelligence that forever altered our place on this planet.

​