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Research Group Leader
Dr Lucy Aplin
I am a cognitive ecologist who studies information use, social networks and culture, mostly in wild birds. My work asks questions like: how do new behaviours emerge, spread and persist in animal populations? Are these are a source of behavioural flexibility? Can cultural inheritance form an important component of a species’ ecology? What is the relationship between social systems and cultural evolution? My CV
Postdoctoral Researchers
Julia Penndorf
Julia recently her PhD in the Aplin lab in 2023, and has moved to the ANU to start a postdoc with us on cognition x social networks in urban sulphur crested cockatoos. She asks how social interactions affect behaviour, learning and decision-making.
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Michael Chimento
Michael defended his PhD in the Aplin lab in 2023. He is continuing this work as a postdoc in the Aplin lab at the University of Zurich. He splits his time between experiments on social learning and cultural evolution in tits as part of the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, and as postdoc on the CES grant, modelling cultural arms races between humans and cockatoos.
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PhD Students
Lisa Fontana
Lisa started her PhD with the Aplin Lab in June 2022 . Previously, she was at Uni. of Turin and the International School of Advanced Studies in Trieste, where she studied neurobiology in rats. Her PhD project explores the evolution of cognitive and cultural complexity in parrots .
Sofia Bolcato
Sofia started her PhD in Feb 2023. Previously, she was at Uni. of Padua and has worked with central America in macaw conservation. Her PhD project explores the link between environmental factors, urbanisation and cultural diversity .
Shefali Dorepalli
Shefali started her PhD in Feb 2024. Previously, she was at Monash Uni. Her PhD project explores the link between ageing and cognitive skills and abilities in sulphur-crested cockatoos.
Ellie Rose
Ellie started her PhD in April 2025, after moving over from masters at Harvard and undergraduate at Rutgers university. Her PhD project looks at the evolution of cognitive/behavioural mechanisms that allow for cultural evolution, using the bin-opening as a case study.
Masters/Honours/Bachelor Students
Jack Mather
Jack is a masters student at the Australian National University (2024-2025). He is looking at social networks and patch discovery in communally roosting cockatoos.
Lara Blumenstiel
Lara is a masters student at the University of Zurich (2024-2025). She is training wild cockatoos to use a touchscreen task, to examine individual variation in learning abilities.
Miro Berg
Miro is a masters student at the University of Zurich (2024-2025). He is using AI to try and develop methods for individual recognition in gang-gang cockatoos
Lab Alumni
Haoyue Liu
2025: Masters student at the Australian National University. She examined predictors of landscape connectivity in cockatoos.
Sally Vistalli
2021: Masters student at Ens Lyons. 6 mth internship in the lab. Sally studied whether information about nest-lining material could be socially transmitted.
Leo North
2024: Honours student at the Australian National University. He looked at the spread of dietary knowledge in cockatoos.
Tim Jager
2020: Bachelor Student. Tim studied whether information about nest-lining material could be socially transmitted
Han Zhu
2023: Honours student at the Australian National University. She looked at associative learning in cockatoos.
David Walters
2021: Bachelor student at Uni. Konstanz. David described a new innovation in urban sulphur-crested cockatoos; "water-bubbler drinking".
Mohnish Deshpande
2023: Masters student at Uni. Konstanz cosupervised with Prof. Goldluecke. He worked on machine learning approaches for identification
Killian Gregory
2019: Masters student at Ens Lyons. 6 mth internship in the lab studying social stability and personality in tits.
Fraser Campbell
2023: Intern. Fraser undertook an internship in Aplin lab from March - September 2023.
Jana Hoersch
2017-19: Masters student. Jana studied whether urban SC cockatoos could learn to recognise human faces.
Glenn Honstetter
2022: Bachelor student at Uni. Konstanz. Glenn studied the formation of dominance hierarchies in captive cockatiels
Collaborators
Dr John Martin
John is an ecologist at Ecosure and University of Western Sydney. He uses citizen science and tracking technologies to study movement ecology in species from foxes and bats to cockatoos. John is our collaborator on the Bird City Birds Citizen Science Platform, studying the behaviour of Sydney's sulphur-crested cockatoos.
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Dr Damien Farine
Damien is an Associate Professor at the Australian National University. He uses tracking technologies to study collective movement and social networks in various bird species. Damien is our collaborator on several projects that involve social network modelling and developing new methodological approaches.
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