Jean-Nicolas Audet

In addition to teaching at Vassar, I conduct research at Rockefeller University Field Research Center. I am a behavioral ecologist interested in understanding the ecological and neurobiological bases of cognition in birds. Some techniques I employ include catching wild birds, characterizing their behavior using behavioral tasks in captivity, and examining their genomes and transcriptomes to discover genes implicated in different cognitive abilities. I focus particularly on problem-solving, an ability that birds use to innovate in the wild.