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Post-docs
Post-docs
Dr Rachel Harrison is as an Assistant Professor (Research) with me as her mentor. She is working 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 several captive and wild primate species, and children in a variety of contexts.
Dr Chandika Srestha recently finished 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 recently finished 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 led our experimental investigation of the evolution of sequence cognition in primates, including squirrel monkeys, capuchin monkeys, chimpanzees, and children.
She is now based at Mannheim University (Germany) as a postdoctoral research and teaching fellow.
Postgraduate Students
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
Ellie (Helen) Donnelly: Human communication in developmental and comparative perspective (with Zanna Clay, Durham & Katie Slocombe, York); PhD.
Amandine Visine: Understanding the effect of seasonal variability in BaYaka children's foraging patterns on self-provisioning, cognitive development, and social learning (led by Sheina Lew-Levy, Durham , with Haneul Jang, MPI Leipzig); MSc + PhD.
Skylar Davidson: The Success of Post-Release Vervet Monkeys in Kenya: An Analysis of Rehabilitation Predator-Awareness and Life-Skill Training (with Russ Hill, Durham); MScbyR.
Lianne Zonnebeld: Applying social network and personality trait analyses to understand and manage human-macaque sympatry in urban Singapore (with Amanda Tan, Durham); PhD.
Alumni
Ms Eleonora Zanetti (MSc by Research 2024) A systematic review of the relationship between social learning strategies and social dynamics in non-human primates.
(with Janelle Wagnild, Durham University)
Now undertaking a PhD with Anne Pisor at Penn State (USA)
Mrs Joan Hong Martin (MSc by Research 2024): Examining how human behaviour and macaque demographics influence the human-macaque (Macaca fascicularis) interface in Singapore.
(with Amanda Tan, Durham University)
Dr Robin Watson (2022): The role of social learning in solving cooperative dilemmas (with Jeremy Kendal & Julie Van de Vyver, Durham).
After postdocs at Warwick University, and Arizona State University (USA), joined the psychology department at Lincoln University, UK.
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)
Now a school teacher in Spain.
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)
Now a celebrated science communicator in Slovenia.
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).
After completing a PhD on the foundations of political ideology at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) began a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Germany).
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 joined 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)
Now runs her own dog training company.
Dr Andrea Donaldson (2017): Primate reintroductions in Coral Rag Forest, Kenya. (with Dr Russ Hill, Durham University & The Colobus Trust).
Went on to work as Research Coordinator for the Primate & Predator Project in Lajuma, South Africa and work for the Born Free Foundation.
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.
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).
After a postdoc at St Andrews, joined the 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
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.
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