Dustin is a Professor of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology at Columbia University. His research spans molecules to populations, from invertebrates to vertebrates, and across levels of analysis, scales of biological organization, and the globe. He takes an integrative approach to understand why complex animal societies form and how organisms cope with environmental change through studies that combine behavior, ecology, and evolution with those of the underlying molecular and neuroendocrine mechanisms. He has studied a variety of animals, including reptiles, birds, mammals, insects, and crustaceans on every continent except Antarctica and Europe.
Patrick is interested in why animals cooperate – and what can tip them over into conflict. During his PhD, he studied the evolution of altruism in South American wasps, and during his first postdoc he developed theoretical models. At Columbia, he will investigate how tropical and temperate social insect populations may differ in their social evolution. He will be studying a species of wasp that spans much of Africa and working with populations in Cameroon and South Africa.
Shailee is interested in social dominance, communication, and sexual selection in birds. As an undergraduate, she studied alarm calling in herring gulls. After graduation she worked on a project on Himalayan birds in her native India, and worked at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology doing multimedia and citizen science. For her PhD, she is using field experiments, long-term data, and population genetics to examine dispersal and the direct benefits that superb starlings receive while living in complex social groups with surprisingly low kin structure.
Stefanie Siller PhD ’16 -
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Stefanie is examining how early life conditions influence fitness later in life. After graduating college, she spent a year in Kenya working at the Mpala Research Centre doing conservation outreach with local schools and studying extrapair paternity in birds. For her PhD, she is examining how environmental conditions during early life influence DNA methylation in wild and captive house sparrows.
Alexis is interested in the evolution of complex social behavior, communication, and cognition. For her MS she studied whether female ornamentation in Indian peafowl signals social status, and whether hormonal mechanisms link variation in ornamentation with status. For her PhD, she is using long-term behavioral data in superb starlings to investigate how the social and ecological environments influence individual level trajectories of reproductive roles within complex social groups, as well as the subsequent impacts on group stability and structure.
research associates
Joseph Solomon
Lab Manager
Joe received his MA from Hunter College before joining the lab. He manages the lab in New York, overseeing students, helping with bioinformatics and data analysis, and all aspects of lab work.
Wilson Nderitu
Field Manager
Wilson has worked on the African starling project since 2001. He left in 2006 to complete his Diploma in Wildlife Management at the Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute.
Elkana Korir
Field Assistant
Korir has worked on the African starling project since 2019. Previously he worked on weaver and guinea fowl projects at the Mpala Research Centre.
