Our people
Prof Andrew Barron | Our research explores the links between brain, physiology and behaviour. We examine how behaviour evolves and how nervous systems support fundamental elements of behaviour like thought, memory, decision and navigation. Core to our approach is to study the neurobiology of animal’s natural behaviour either in their natural environment or in specially designed labs in which they can express their natural behaviour. We focus particularly on ants and bees. These animals display phenomenal behavioural abilities and rich behavioural repertoires despite having only tiny brains. We believe the study of these ‘simple’ animals will be particularly insightful in working out how behaviour emerges from neural circuits. |
Prof Culum Brown | The lab is primarily interested in fish, shark and ray biology with an emphasis on behavioural ecology. We frequently look to apply research to fisheries or conservation management and animal welfare. We are broadly interested in comparative cognition with focus on learning and memory, cerebral lateralisation, social intelligence and personality. |
Prof Ken Cheng | Our research encompasses mechanistic, functional and evolutionary questions in the study of animal behaviour. A central theme of our research concerns how animals process information. Dealing with information is crucial for many important behaviours in an animal’s life, including choosing a mate, avoiding predators, and finding food. A central theme is learning and navigation in desert ants and bull ants. We are also examining the urban ethology of flying foxes on the east coast of New South Wales, Australia. |
Prof Simon Griffith | Most of our research questions are focused on our desire to understand why birds are the way they are. We are interested in the evolution of behaviour, physiology and life-history variation across species. We conduct work on birds in the field and captivity and use a variety of techniques in our research, including microscopy, optical spectrometry, acoustic analysis, molecular work, hormonal assays, individual tracking and comparative methods. We are passionate about the arid zone of Australia and fascinated by the way that it shapes the animals that live there. We have also recently started to work on individual foraging strategies in sheep, goats and cats in an effort to understand behavioural adaptations to the harsh Australian environment and how that affects the management of these important animals – sheep as a production animal, and goats and cats as key pest species that threaten Australian biodiversity. |
Prof Robert Harcourt | In the Marine Predator Research Group, we have broad interests in the behaviour, ecology and conservation of animals that occupy higher trophic levels in marine food webs. We have been conducting research on subjects as diverse as animal personality, animal communication, mating preferences, individual differences, sociality and population genetics through to more applied research on foraging ecology, animal movements, population dynamics, conservation physiology and anthropogenic interactions. |
A/Prof Nathan Hart | Using a comparative approach, our researchers investigate the functional neural adaptations of different animals to their particular lifestyle and habitat – this is the field of neuroecology. Major research themes in the Neurobiology Lab are sensory perception, information processing, behaviour, ecological adaptation, and evolution. |
Prof Marie Herberstein | Our research concentrates on investigating the behavioural ecology of invertebrates, including spiders and insects, within an evolutionary framework. We are interested in establishing spiders as significant models in behavioural and evolutionary research, deceptive signals in spiders and orchids, and mating behaviour and sexual selection in spiders and insects. |
A/Prof Darrell Kemp | We are interested in addressing fundamental questions in evolution, genetics and behaviour. Broadly, our research deals with the evolution, genetics and behavioural ecology of visual signals, sexual selection and sexual conflict, predicting adaptive potential and evolutionary trajectories in both wild and captive populations and the evolutionary dynamics of hostendosymbiont interactions. A general theme of the lab is to exploit the novel and often exciting empirical opportunities presented by non-model study species. We are not limited to particular taxonomic groups but have tended to mainly use insects due to their lab tractability for evolutionary genetics. The astounding biological diversity of this group also presents intriguing possibilities for testing novel hypotheses and for creating novel approaches to existing hypotheses. |
Dr Ajay Narendra | The Ecological Neuroscience Group comprises a team of researchers interested in identifying the neurobiological basis of insect behaviour. Our research primarily focuses on navigation, since it is a fundamental behaviour that is essential for most animals on Earth. We study some of the largest ants in the world, Australian bull ants or inch ants, since their behaviours in the natural environment can be tracked with great precision, allowing us to probe the design of their visual system, along with the chemosensory and mechanosensory apparatus through a range of microscopy tools. |
A/Prof Martin Whiting | Our research focuses broadly on key questions in behavioural and evolutionary ecology, for which we use lizards as a model system, although we have also studied mole rats, snakes, cichlids, tree frogs and cane toads. Currently, we are focused on three major themes: i) animal communication; ii) cognition; and iii) sexual selection, social behaviour, social organisation and understanding the early evolution of sociality in vertebrates. We are currently using the Egernia group of lizards as a model system because of the high incidence of family living. This allows us to delve into understanding what factors may have triggered the early evolution of sociality and whether social living influences the evolution of brain size. We are also interested in how global warming and changes to the incubation environment might influence brain development and learning ability. |