I'm a post-doctoral research associate with the Center for Insect Sciences at the University of Arizona, working with Anna Dornhaus and Dan Papaj. I recently finished my doctorate on jay and fruit fly cognition in Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota with David Stephens.

The primary focus of my research is investigating the role of environmental variability in the evolution and ecological function of cognition (e.g. learning, memory, and decision making). Even more broadly, I'm interested in the interplay between evolution and cognitive mechanisms. I tend to think about these questions in terms of foraging behavior, since animals that can't make a living tend not to survive to reproduce.