Research interests

I am an evolutionary biology interested in social behavior – particularly in how signaling systems evolve when there are evolutionary conflicts of interest between signallers and receivers. Using parent-offspring signalling in birds (begging) as a framework, I investigate how ecology and life history traits affect communication both across and within species. I'm currently a postdoc with Camilla Hinde at Wageningen University, doing experimental fieldwork with great tits.​ ​I use a mixture of comparative analyses, modelling and field data to study the evolution of begging behaviour in birds.

 ​In my past scientific lives, I did my DPhil with Ashleigh Griffin and Stu West, in the social evolution group in the Department of Zoology at Oxford (2013-17). I also studied chimpanzee social behaviour at Harvard University and capuchin monkeys at Susan Perry’s field site (Lomas Barbudal, Costa Rica).

Beginning in September 2017, I will work with superb starlings at Columbia University with Dustin Rubenstein, thanks to a Simons Foundation junior fellowship.