Visiting Researchers
2011
Lena Menken (Free University of Berlin, Germany) is doing her Masters in Neurobiology and Behaviour in Berlin and visited the centre for a three month internship. She was working with Tom Smulders on his neuroanatomical project relating to the welfare of broiler breeder chickens.
2010
Maud Scotto (University of Lyon, France) is currently a Master student in Physiology and Neurosciences. She is carrying out a six-month internship within Paul Flecknell’s team at the Comparative Biology Centre. The main project of this internship concerns the study of the facial expressions of pain on mouse.
2009
Dr Andrew Higginson (University of Glasgow) is collaborating with Candy Rowe, John Skelhorn and Christina Halpin on several projects relating to antipredator defences in prey. This is part of long running association between CBE and Prof Graeme Ruxton and others in the Division of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Glasgow. Andrew is particularly interested in the development and evolution of costly defences employed by prey during their growth periods, such as toxins in caterpillars. Visit Andrew's homepage.
Dr Thomas Carle did a Masters in Animal and Human Behaviour during his PhD in Neuroscience, and came on a research placement for five months in 2009. Working with Candy Rowe, he studied macronutrient preferences in European starlings, and how birds use different cues (taste and colour) in their foraging decisions. He is keen to pursue this area of research, and has recently been awarded an ASAB Project Grant to return to Newcastle in the autumn to conduct more experiments on dietary cognition.
2008
Dr Leena Lindström (University of Jyväskylä, Finland) visited Candy Rowe, John Skelhorn and Christina Halpin, who study the evolution of warning signals (Apr-May). This extends an earlier collaboration between the two Centres of Excellence, looking at the role of avian cognition in the evolution of defensive strategies in insect prey. Visit Leena's homepage.
Prof Ken Sufka (University of Mississippi, USA) has been awarded a Visting Fellowship by Newcastle University to establish a new collaboration with researchers in animal welfare (Jul-Aug). He will visit Melissa Bateson, Paul Flecknell and Candy Rowe to discuss and develop a chick model of anxiety and depression that could be used for testing hypotheses relating to the different cognitive biases thought to be associated with these psychiatric disorders. Visit Ken’s homepage.
2007
Prof Carel ten Cate (University of Leiden, The Netherlands) was a BBSRC ISIS Fellow for four months in Candy Rowe’s lab (Sept-Dec). He came to study the role of animal cognition in the evolution of animal signals, and conducted experiments investigating whether colour biases learned in one behavioural context (e.g. food choice), can be transferred to another (e.g. mate choice). The visit forms a basis for future collaboration between the two labs. Visit Carel’s homepage.
Richard Parker (Unversity of Bristol, UK) visited the Centre to work with Candy Rowe and Melissa Bateson, with the aim of developing methods of studying cognitive bias in domestic chicks (Feb). This is part of an on-going collaboration with Prof Mike Mendl to study affective state in animals. Visit Richard's homepage.
Dr Julie Mustard (Arizona State University, USA) visited Jeri Wright’s bee lab in September. This is part of an ongoing collaboration to study the role of dopamine in aversive olfactory learning.
2006
Prof Yoshifumi Yamawaki (Kyushi University, Japan) was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the EU to record from collision sensing neurons in freeely moving locusts with Claire Rind and Peter Simmons. Visit Yoshifumi's homepage.
