Cornell University Department of Neurobiology and Behavior

Click on faculty name for additional contact information and research interests

Adkins Regan, Elizabeth -- Mechanisms of behavior; hormonal and neural mechanisms of avian social behavior

Adler, Kraig -- Photoreception and orientation of vertebrates; behavior, ecology, and evolution of amphibians and reptiles

Bass, Andrew -- Animal communication, especially production and encoding of vocal signals; evolution and sexual differentiation of brain and behavior

Booker, Ronald -- Control of neurodevelopment and postembryonic neurogenesis in the CNS of insects

Bradbury, Jack -- Evolution of animal social behavior and communication, with current projects on functions of vocal learning in wild parrots

Cleland, Thomas -- Olfactory perception as a complex system, coordinating behavioral, physiological, pharmacological, and computational studies of sensory sampling, learning and memory, and biological neural networks

Deitcher, David -- Molecular mechanisms of neurotransmitter and neuropeptide release; synaptic homeostatis; temperature-sensitive paralytic mutants in Drosophila

Eisner, Thomas -- Chemical communication, ecology, and evolution; behavioral ecology, particularly of insects; insect-plant interactions; conservation

Emlen, Stephen -- Evolution of animal social behavior, with current emphasis on behavioral ecology of cooperative nesting in birds

Fetcho, Joseph -- Control of movements by the hindbrain and spinal cord

Halpern, Bruce -- Sensory physiology; chemoreception

Harris-Warrick, Ronald -- Neuromodulation of neural networks; gene cloning of K+ channels

Hopkins, Carl -- Neuroethology of animal communication; neuroethology of passive electrolocation

Howland, Howard -- Sensory physiology, especially vision; development of focusing and refractive state in humans; animal vision, models of myopia and emmetropization; optical quality of the eye

Hoy, Ronald -- Animal communication; behavior genetics of invertebrates; regeneration and development in inverterate nervous systems

Linster, Christiane -- Neural coding and memory in the olfactory system; emphasis on neuromodulatory influences; combined approach using behavior, electrophysiology, and computational modeling

McCobb, David -- Integrative neurobiology; regulation and function of potassium channels in adrenaline secreting cells and its relationship to stress

Raguso, Robert -- Chemically-Mediated Plant/Animal Interactions; Biosynthesis, Physiology and Evolution of Fragrance; Insect Olfaction, Behavior and Pollination Ecology

Reeve, Hudson Kern -- Theoretical sociobiology; evolution of cooperation and conflict in animal societies; behavioral ecology; plasticity in insect social behavior

Seeley, Thomas -- Sociobiology: physiology, ecology, and evolution of animal societies, especially the societies of insects

Shaw, Kerry -- Behavioral genetics, sexual selection and evolution; Orthopteroid Insects; Genetic architecture of behavior (QTLs), linkage analysis and genome evolution

Sherman, Paul -- Animal social behavior

Vehrencamp, Sandra -- Evolution of animal communication systems, especially bird song; behavioral ecology of cooperative nesting in birds

Walcott, Charles -- Animal orientation and navigation; animal acoustic communication

Additional Field Members

Huai-Hu Chuang -- signal transduction complexes in primary sensory neurons; mechanisms by which transduction channels transform the environmental stimuli into electric signals and the modulation of transduction efficiency by intracellular second messengers

Christopher Clark -- abundances and acoustic behaviors of birds, fish, elephants, and whales; evolution and function of acoustic signaling behavior in animals

Ruth Collins -- examination of how the chemical reactions of biology are organized in time and space, and how this organization is harnessed by cells to generate distinct outcomes

Timothy Devoogd -- animal communication; neuroanatomical plasticity; quantitative neurobiology; neurobiology of avian caching; hormonal influences on brain structure; avian song system

Janis Dickinson -- behavioral ecology of birds and insects, with a focus on dispersal, mating behavior, and cooperative breeding; relationship between resource wealth, nepotism, and family group living

Barbara Finlay -- development and evolution of neural systems in mammals

Cole Gilbert -- invertebrate neuroethology; sensory guidance; neural evolution in arthropods

William Horne -- role of voltage-gated calcium channels in synaptic vesicle release; molecular mechanisms of pain and analgesia

Robert Johnston -- animal communication, social recognition, and memory, mostly by chemical signals; neural mechanisms of social recognition and memory; mechanisms of vertebrate social behavior (behavioral, olfactory, neural, hormonal)

Michael Kotlikoff -- cellular signaling; ion channels; genetic cell sensors; conditional gene targeting

David Lin -- axon guidance and target formation during the development of the mouse olfactory system, using genetic, in vitro, and genomic approaches

Manfred Lindau -- biophysics; exocytosis; mechanisms of vesicle fusion and transmitter release

Ellis Loew -- sensory physiology; sensory ecology; retinal physiology and biochemistry; clinical electrophysiology; visual sciences

Linda Nowak -- molecular and electrophysiological analysis of glutamate receptors, ion channels, and response mechanisms in synaptic transmission

Robert Oswald -- molecular neurobiology and biophysics; neurotransmitter receptors and signal transduction

Wendell Roelofs -- insect chemical communication: production and perception; behavior, biosynthesis, and genetics

Chris Schaffer -- advanced optical techniques used to observe and manipulate in vivo biological systems with the goal of developing a microscopic-scale understanding of normal and disease-state physiological processes; neurodegeneration caused by occlusion of microvessels in the brain

David Smith -- neural systems involved in learning and memory functions; multi-site neuronal recordings and neurochemical inactivation in behaving rodents used to identify brain circuitry involved in these functions

Michael Spivey -- eye movements and neural networks

Gregory Weiland -- molecular neurobiology and neuropharmacology; receptor and ion channel mechanisms

David Winkler -- the causes of spatial and temporal variation in the life histories of birds