Susana A. M. Varela

PhD Researcher in Behavioural Ecology and Behavioural Neurobiology

I am currently a PhD Researcher at the William James Center for Research (WJCR) of ISPA-Instituto Universitário (ISPA-IU) and at the Integrative Behavioural Biology Group (IBBG) of the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM).

I study Social Behaviour with two main approaches: 1) Behavioural Ecology: the study of the ecological conditions under which social behaviour is adaptive and how the use of social information impacts its development and evolution; and 2) Behavioural Neurobiology: the study of the underlying cognitive mechanisms by which animals acquire, learn and use social information.

I am also interested in three additional objectives: 3) Sociocultural Evolution: the study of how the transmission of social information leads to the evolution of culture, communication, and language; 4) Conservation Behaviour and Conservation Psychology: the study of social information use in contexts that could be relevant to conservation problems and the study of the mechanisms that inhibit or trigger nature conservation behaviours in humans; and 5) Research Ethics.

And I am passionate about Teaching, Science Education, Communication and Outreach.

To address these goals, I use experimental, theoretical, and conceptual approaches, using fruit flies and zebrafish as my main model organisms. However, I also have worked or am currently working with guppies, birds, mice, primates, and other invertebrate species.

Keywords covering my current and past projects or interests: Evolutionary Biology - Behavioural Ecology - Behavioural Neurobiology - Social cognition - Social learning - Social Behaviour - Social Competence - Evolution of sociality - Sociocultural Evolution - Sexual Selection - Mate-Choice Copying - Conservation Behaviour - Conservation Psychology - Ethnobiology - Research Ethics - Teaching - Science Education - Science Communication - Science Outreach.