Post-docs & Post-grads
Post-docs
Dr Rachel Harrison will be joining Durham (with me as mentor) in 2024 on her Leverhulme Trust Fellowship: Tolerance and transmission: social tolerance and cultural complexity in primates.
Rachel is a primatologist and developmental psychologist who has worked with a variety of captive and wild primate species, and children in a variety of contexts.
Dr Chandika Srestha is currently working with me, Prof. Claire Horwell and Prof. Judith Covey on the MRC-GCRF funded FACE-UP grant. She leads the research related to childhood exposure to urban air pollution in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Chandika is a Health Geographer and has worked in the public health sector in Nepal for preventing diseases and promoting health.
Dr Eva Reindl is currently working with me on a project funded by the John Templeton Foundation as part of the CESTransformationFund grant.
Along with Prof Rob Barton and Prof Amanda Seed, Eva is leading our experimental investigation of the evolution of sequence cognition in primates, including squirrel monkeys, capuchin monkeys, chimpanzees, and children.
Postgraduate Students
I enjoy supervising postgraduates and helping them become fully fledged academics or move into fields where they can apply their knowledge and skills.
I received an Excellence in Doctoral Supervision Award from Durham University (2016) in recognition of my support for early career researchers.
Current Students
Mrs Joan Martin: Human macaque interactions in Singapore (with Amanda Tan); MScR
Ms Eleonora Zanetti: Investigating the relationship between social learning strategies and social dynamics (with Janelle Wagnild); MScR.
Ms Ellie (Helen) Donnelly: Human communication in developmental and comparative perspective (with Zanna Clay, Durham & Katie Slocombe, York); PhD.
Alumni
Dr Robin Watson (2022): The role of social learning in solving cooperative dilemmas (with Jeremy Kendal & Julie Van de Vyver, Durham).
Following a postdoc at Warwick University, now a postdoc at Arizona State University (USA).
Dr Ivan Garcia-Nisa (2021): Communication and cultural transmission in populations of semi-free ranging Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus).
(with Bess Price & Domnhall Jennings, Newcastle; Jo Setchell, Durham)
Ms Samin Gokcekus (MSc by Research 2020): Behavioural flexibility, curiosity and cooperative breeding: dealing with complex concepts and paradigms
(with Zanna Clay, Durham University)
Now studying cooperation in great tits for her PhD at Oxford University, UK.
Dr Zarja Mursic (2019): Social learning and creativity in children in informal learning environments
(with Jeremy Kendal, Durham University & Andy Lloyd, Centre for Life, Newcastle)
Mr Guy Lavender-Forsyth (MSc by Research, 2019): Children's instrumental copying in play: comparing how children copy when they encounter evidence of failure in a close- and open-ended task. (with Jeremy Kendal, Durham University and the Centre for Life, Newcastle).
Now studying the foundations of political ideology for his PhD at the University of Auckland (New Zealand).
Dr Bruce Rawlings (2018): Establishing predictors of learning strategies; an investigation of the development of, and evolutionary foundations of, extrinsic and intrinsic factors influencing when we learn from others and from whom we learn. (with Prof Emma Flynn, Durham University).
After completing a postdoc in the EVO Learn lab
Now Assistant Prof. in the Psychology Dept. at Durham University (UK).
Dr Clara Corat (2018): Cumulative culture and socially biased learning strategies in tufted capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus)of Serra da Capivara National Park
(with Prof. Edu Ottoni, Sao Paulo University, Brazil)
Dr Andrea Donaldson (2017): Primate reintroductions in Coral Rag Forest, Kenya. (with Dr Russ Hill, Durham University & The Colobus Trust).
Now writing papers and Research Coordinator for the Primate & Predator Project in Lajuma, South Africa.
Dr Cara Evans (2016): Interactions of social learning and cooperation
(with Prof Kevin Laland, St Andrews University).
Now on her first postdoc in Jena (Germany).
Dr Kayleigh Carr (2016): Understanding the process of behavioural innovation in children
(with Dr Emma Flynn, Durham University).
Now in the civil service, applying psychology to UK government policy.
Dr Camila Galheigo Coelho (2015): Social dynamics and diffusion of novel behaviour patterns in wild capuchin monkeys (with Prof Eduardo Ottoni, Sao Paulo University, Brazil).
PhD research featured in BBC Wild Brazil and now working for the BBC Natural History Unit whilst working on publishing her research.
Dr Gill Vale (2013): Cumulative culture in chimpanzees and children.
(with Dr Emma Flynn, Durham University).
Now Assistant Director at the Lester E Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes at Lincoln Park Zoo (USA).
Dr Lara Wood (2013): Social learning strategies in chimpanzees and children.
(with Dr Emma Flynn, Durham University).
Now a Senior Lecturer in Division of Psychology at Abertay University (Scotland).
Dr Lewis Dean (2011): Cumulative culture in human, and non-human, primates.
(with Prof. Kevin Laland, St Andrews University).
Worked as a Programme Manager in public engagement policy for UKRI (was RCUK), as Head of Research Funding for Research England and currently as Head of the Wales Innovation Network.
Prospective Postgraduate Researchers
The following is a list of areas in which I would be happy to supervise PhD students or MRes students but they do not represent funded opportunities. See https://www.dur.ac.uk/anthropology/postgraduatestudy/funding/ for details regarding applying for PhD funding:
1. Investigating the role of individual differences and social networks in behavioural innovation and/or the transmission of novel information through human and non-human animal groups.
2. Investigating social learning strategies in human and non-human animals.
3. Assessing evidence for cumulative culture in human and non-human animals.
4. Developing simulations of asocial and social learning based on parameters collected in the field.
5. Assessing the validity of putative traditions, seen in the wild, using statistical methods and captive groups of primates.
6. Applications of behavioural research to animal welfare and/or conservation and education and/or science communication.