Christie Riehl, Assistant Professor

​Office: Guyot 420a
email: criehl@princeton.edu
Click here for my CV
Profiled here in PNAS
I've always been fascinated by a) animal social behaviors, and b) anything having to do with birds. My main research project is a long-term study of the breeding behavior of the greater ani (a bizarre communally breeding cuckoo) in Panama, but I'm broadly interested in questions involving the evolution and ecology of sociality.

Meghan Strong, Project Manager

Office: Guyot 419
email: mstrong@princeton.edu
Meghan is interested in questions regarding group decision-making processes, and the evolutionary origins of sociality in a variety of group-living species (primates and birds alike!). For her Master’s thesis in Anthropology, she conducted a study on black-handed spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) on Barro Colorado Island in Panama, where she became fascinated by the Greater Ani project. She is currently managing the nest monitoring program and is involved in many aspects of lab and field data analysis.

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Dan Baldassarre, Postdoctoral Research Associate

Office: Guyot 419
email: danieltb@princeton.edu
webpage: www.danbaldassarre.weebly.com
​Daniel Baldassarre is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Riehl lab. His research aims to connect behavioral ecology and speciation by approaching ornithological studies from multiple levels of analysis. Dan’s current project is on behavioral plasticity in the phainopepla, an enigmatic passerine species from the southwestern USA that breeds in two different physical and social environments. Using a combination of GPS tracking, behavioral data, genetic paternity analyses, and phylogeography, Dan is studying how the phainopepla thrives under such variable conditions. This study will provide insights into how behavioral plasticity affects population divergence and the ability of animals to cope with climate change. When not catching birds or working in the lab, Dan can usually be found watching the Boston Red Sox (or debating Pats/Saints roster moves with Christie). ​

Cynthia Ursino, Postdoctoral Research Associate

Office: Guyot 419
email: cynursino@gmail.com
​Cynthia received her Ph.D. in 2016 from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, studying the evolution of host-parasite interactions between the specialist Screaming Cowbird and its primary host, the Baywing. She won a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) of Argentina, co-advised by Christie Riehl and Juan Reboreda at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Her postdoctoral work focuses on the mating system and population genetics of the Screaming Cowbird. Cynthia is visiting the Riehl Lab in fall 2017 on a Fulbright Award to learn new genomic techniques.​ ​​​

​Maria Smith, Ph.D. student

Office: Guyot 419
email: mgsmith@princeton.edu
Maria joined the Riehl lab in fall 2017 as a Ph.D. student after receiving her B.S. in Biological Sciences from Cornell University.  Maria's previous research focused on parental care and social behavior in songbirds.  At Princeton, she plans to explore questions about group dynamics in cooperatively breeding birds, including the potential benefits of group stability across breeding seasons.

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Amanda Savagian, Ph.D. student

Office: Guyot 419
email: savagian@princeton.edu
Amanda is a second-year Ph.D. student working on the evolution of vocal communication in group-living anis.​ She received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, conducting her senior thesis research on the behavior of monogamous owl monkeys with Dr. Eduardo Fernandez-Duque. She subsequently worked on field projects ranging from wolves to rhesus monkeys, and won a predoctoral fellowship from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in 2015 to join the ani project before beginning the Princeton graduate program in 2016.