Pietro D'Amelio
Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology
Biology Department
Division of Mathematical and Natural Sciences
I am an animal behaviorist fascinated by the study of social interactions, especially when they involve vocal communication. I use birds as a model system not only because they evolved incredible behaviors, charming colors and phenomenal adaptations, but also because birds are chiefly diurnal and rely mainly on sight and vocalizations for mediating social interactions, which together with their vocal learning capabilities, allow several parallelisms with human behavior. I put a lot of research effort in ensuring precise individual behavioral quantification with an eye on new technologies and reproducible practices. Prior to joining the faculty at Reed to teach animal behavior and provide students with hands on field and lab research experiences, I held postdoc positions at the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CEFE) in Montpellier (France), at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology in Cape Town (South Africa), at Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence (MPIBI) in Munich (Germany), and at the center for National Research (IRSA-CNR) in Milan (Italy) and received my PhD from the department of behavioral neurobiology at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology (MPIO) located near Munich (Germany).