Animal communication, sensory biology, mating systems, multimodal signaling, learning and memory, neural mechanisms of behavior, arachnids, jumping spiders, fishing spiders, net-casting spiders, wolf spiders, harvestmen, amblypygids, solifugids, informal science education.

The diversity of animal life on our planet is absolutely astounding and my research is driven by a fundamental interest in understanding how this diversity arose and how it currently functions. In particular, I am captivated by the variety of often spectacular ways in which animals communicate with each other – frequently incorporating specialized structures, colors, and patterns into intricate dynamic movement displays. Similarly, I am fascinated with the diverse means by which animals acquire and use information from their environment – often exploiting highly specialized sensory structures and associated central processing systems. Finally, extreme mating behavior, often seemingly maladaptive at face value, pose extraordinarily fun evolutionary puzzles to piece together. Following from these central interests, my research programs can be generally arranged according to three main themes: (i) animal communication, (ii) sensory biology, and (iii) mating systems.