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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
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, 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 and ecology of cognition and innovation 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 Deakin Uni. in Melbourne. Her PhD project explores cognitive skills and abilities in sulphur-crested cockatoos.
Leo North
Leo started his PhD in July 2025. His PhD project looks at the social networks and spread of innovation in noisy miners, a highly successful (and social) urban adaptor.
Masters/Honours/Bachelor Students
Lee DeSouza
Lee is a honours student at the Australian National University (2026). Using a touchscreen task with wild cockatoos, Lee examined individual correlations in learning abilities, and how they relate to urban habitat use
Noah Tan
Noah is a honours student at the Australian National University (2026). He is developing new methods to use BLE-tags to describe habitat selection, using white-winged choughs as a case study
Lab Alumni
Lara Blumenstiel
2025: Masters student at University of Zurich. Lara trained wild cockatoos to use a touchscreen task, to examine individual variation in learning abilities
Glenn Honstetter
2022: Bachelor student at Uni. Konstanz. Glenn studied the formation of dominance hierarchies in captive cockatiels
Miro Berg
2025: Masters student at the University of Zurich. He used AI to develop methods for individual recognition in gang-gang 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.
Jack Mather
2025: Masters student at the Australian National University. He looked at and patch discovery in communally roosting 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".
Haoyue Liu
2025: Masters student at the Australian National University. She examined predictors of landscape connectivity in cockatoos.
Killian Gregory
2019: Masters student at Ens Lyons. 6 mth internship in the lab studying social stability and personality in tits.
Mohnish Deshpande
2023: Masters student at Uni. Konstanz cosupervised with Prof. Goldluecke. He worked on machine learning approaches for identification
Jana Hoersch
2017-19: Masters student. Jana studied whether urban SC cockatoos could learn to recognise human faces.
Collaborators
Dr John Martin
John is an ecologist at BioAssess 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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Julia Penndorf
Julia was a recent postdoc in the lab, looking at cognition x social networks in urban sulphur crested cockatoos. She is now researching social behaviour in orcas, at the University of Exeter.She is still collaborating with us to ask how social interactions affect behaviour, learning and decision-making.
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