Beekman, Madeleine: - Madeleine Beekman is professor emerita of evolutionary biology and behavioral ecology at the University of Sydney, Australia. In the academic year of 2020-2021, Beekman was a resident fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin), which is where the idea for The Origin of Language was born. She currently lives in Australia's northern tropical rainforest with her husband, where she can observe the endangered cassowary from her office. She has two adult daughters.