Studying the behavioural biology of cattle sheds light on how they see and experience the world, and ultimately offers us insight into their feelings. What drives their behaviour? How do the ways that we interact with them, house them, and manage them, impact their well-being? In our lab, answering these questions are fundamental to ensuring that the animals we farm, in this case cattle, live a good life.
My research aims to improve life by helping diverse human societies to better relate to each other and think more critically about the impacts of our actions on our fellow non-human beings.
My group uses in vivo and in vitro models to ask how transcriptional regulators of the Dlx gene family influence cellular differentiation in the skeleton and craniofacial tissue patterning during vertebrate embryogenesis...
I and my lab study animal welfare. We're interested in how to create good living conditions for animals kept in labs, zoos and farms; in how scientists can assess well-being objectively; and in what happens to brain and behaviour when animals are raised and kept lifelong in confining, barren enclosures.
My research program is the only one in Canada that integrates economics, hydrology, and GIS to examine the cost effectiveness of landscape conservation programs.