MEET-THE-PROF LUNCH SCHEDULE FOR SBN 2007 

NAME 

INSTITUTION 

LUNCH DAY 

LAB FOCUS 

LAB URL 

Anders Agmo 

Univ of Tromso, Norway 

Saturday 

Neurobiology of sexual behaviors, particularly sexual motivation. 

http://uit.no/psykologi/ansatte/26

Art Arnold 

UCLA 

Friday 

We study sex differences in brain and behavior, especially the effect of sex chromosome genes to create sex differences; and, we study the evolution of the sex chromosomes and sex chromosome dosage compensation in birds. 

http://www.physci.ucla.edu/
html/arnold.htm

Greg Ball 

Johns Hopkins 

Friday 

My lab studies interrelationships among steroid hormones, brain and behavior. We study a variety of avian species that exhibit high degrees of neuroplasticity in response to hormone treatment. These studies are designed to investigate both how hormones act in the brain to affect activation of reproductive behaviors and how behavioral and other stimuli are processed by the brain to influence reproductive endocrine activity and the timing of seasonal reproduction. 

http://www.psy.jhu.edu/~ball/

Yvon Delville 

Univ of Texas 

Saturday 

My lab focuses on issues related to stress and agonistic behavior, with a special emphasis on peri-pubertal development. 

http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/
HomePage/Faculty/Delville/lab/

Nancy Forger 

Univ of Massachusetts 

Friday 

Cell death and sexual differentiation of the brain (mice, rats).  Effects of sex and "status" on the nervous systems of naked mole-rats and spotted hyenas.

http://www.umass.edu/
cns/forger/index.htm 

Matthew Grober 

Georgia State 

Saturday 

Integrative analyses of the evolution and proximate regulation of vertebrate sexual plasticity. 

http://www.gsu.edu/~biomgx

Theresa Lee 

Univ of Michigan 

Sunday 

I am interested in understanding behavior and the neural underpinnings of behavior across the lifespan that are influenced by the environment, whether physical (e.g. daily & seasonal rhythms) or social (e.g. rearing environment, sex partners), and internal biological factors (e.g. endocrine state, circadian biology, sex dimorphism of brain). 

http://sitemaker.umich.edu/
theresa.lee.lab/home

Kathie Olsen 

NSF 

Sunday 

Deputy Director, National Science Foundation 

http://www.nsf.gov/news/
speeches/olsen/olsen_bio.jsp

Christine Wagner 

Univ at Albany 

Friday 

My lab examines progesterone receptor (PR) expression in the fetal and neonatal brain and the function of PR in sexual differentiation of the brain and behavior, as well as its role in the development of neocortex.  In addition, we are examining the mechanisms by which steroid receptors may interact to produce anatomical and developmental specificity in steroid action during neural development.

http://www.albany.edu/psy/wagner.html

Tina Williams & Staci Bilbo 

Duke 

Sunday 

Dr. Bilbo¹s research program takes an integrated approach to tracing how early experiences (social, infectious, hormonal) impact brain and adult behavior. She is also interested in the mechanisms by which seasonal alterations in the environment influence the expression of sickness behavior, stress responses, and immune function.  Dr. Williams' research program examine how hormones and nutrients (e.g., choline and folate), impact the trajectory of development of brain systems involved with learning, memory, and exploration, particularly the hippocampus and frontal cortex. She is also interested in how alterations in the maternal diet cause epigenetic changes in brain and cognitive function.

http://fds.duke.edu/db/aas/pn/
faculty/williams#publications

http://psych.colorado.edu/~bilbo/

John Wingfield 

Univ of Washington 

Sunday 

My research focuses on environmental control of reproduction and associated cycles of behavior, migration, molt, wintering strategies. We take a very integrated approach including theoretical and ecological aspects such as application of mathematical models to field data. While in the field we collect physiological samples from free-living animals, and experimentally manipulate phenotypes (through hormone implants) to tease out mechanisms of control. These data are then integrated with laboratory experiments under rigorously controlled conditions. Endocrine techniques are applied to samples collected both in the field and laboratory and investigations at the cell and molecular level are encouraged. Additional emphasis is emerging in the area of conservation biology and what field endocrinology can contribute to this more applied aspect of biology. My laboratory works primarily with birds, although all vertebrate groups are of interest. 

http://faculty.washington.edu/
jwingfie/alt_index.html

Kathy Wynne-Edwards 

Queen's Univ 

Saturday 

Evolutionary perspectives on endocrine signalling; Neuroendocrinology of the paternal brain 

http://biology.queensu.ca/~wynneedw