Email: jasper[@]caltech.edu Phone: 626-395-4387

Research:
Studies of animal behavior should include both observation and experimentation. Field observations lack experimental flexiblity; conventional laboratory experiments neglect ecological complexity. Either research program alone restricts our understanding of animal behavior. Required is the ability to observe behavior in controlled environments that are more true to an animal's ecology. To meet this requirement, we built a modular system of biospheres [FlyWorld] where within and between we can (1) set up simplified environments and (2) observe and quantify behaviors.

Seasonal change and undesirable habitats force animals to assess local resources and decide between to stay or to move somewhere potentially more desirable. Cues from both the environment and an animal's physiology influence the decision to disperse. What mechanisms underlie the ability to integrate and process these external and internal cues? Within a neuroethological context, dispersal from a food resource in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster provides a model to study elementary decision making.

Education: B.A., Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, 1996

Link to Caltech's Animal Behavior Website: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~jasper/