Joshua Plotnik, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Joshua Plotnik, Ph.D. is the lab’s principal investigator. He is a comparative psychologist and conservation behavior researcher who has studied the intelligence of elephants since 2005. Recently, Josh has been working in Thailand to understand how research on animal thinking can be applied directly to the mitigation of human/elephant conflict. He is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and the Animal Behavior and Conservation Program at Hunter College, and in the Cognitive and Comparative Psychology program at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the Director of the Comparative Cognition for Conservation Lab and the Director of the Animal Behavior and Conservation Graduate Programs at Hunter College. Prior to arriving at Hunter, he was a lecturer at Mahidol University in Thailand, and a Newton International Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Plotnik has earned degrees from both Emory University (M.A. and Ph.D.) and Cornell University (B.S.).
Hunter College
Graduate Center, CUNY
E-mail: joshua.plotnik@hunter.cuny.edu
Sydney Hope, Ph.D. 
Postdoctoral Fellow
Sydney is a postdoctoral fellow in the CCC lab, having completed her PhD at Virginia Tech in Fish and Wildlife Conservation in 2019.
She received her B.S. in Biology from the College of New Jersey in 2014. Her Ph.D. project investigated how external factors influence young birds (from incubation to the juvenile period), and she continued similar work as a postdoc at the Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC) in France. Sydney leads the lab’s research on collective intelligence and memory, and also manages several other research projects, supervising and mentoring high school, undergraduate and graduate students, from New York to Thailand.
E-mail: sh7548@hunter.cuny.edu
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Sarah Jacobson, Ph.D.
Affiliated Scientist
Sarah completed her PhD in the lab (in 2023) as a student in the Cognitive and Comparative Psychology Program at the Graduate Center at CUNY, remained for a year as a postdoctoral fellow, and now is a full-time lecturer in psychology at St. Xavier University in Chicago. She remains an affiliated scientist, and a valued colleague and advisor in the CCC lab.
She received her B.A. in Neuroscience from Colorado College in 2013. Her Ph.D. project was focused on Asian elephant crop-raiding behavior, and how individual variation in elephant behavior and cognition can help predict human-elephant conflict. She is continuing to lead several elephant cognition and conservation projects in the lab.
E-mail: sjacobson@gradcenter.cuny.edu
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Robbie Ball
Ph.D. student
Robbie (he/him) is a Ph.D. student in the CCC lab and a graduate student in the Cognitive and Comparative Psychology Program at the Graduate Center at CUNY.
He received his B.S. in Cognitive Science from the University of California San Diego in 2019. He focuses on experimental cognitive work in animals, drawing from the evolutionary and developmental perspective of comparative cognition.
E-mail: rball@gradcenter.cuny.edu
Recent Publications: Acknowledging the Relevance of Elephant Sensory Perception to Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation, Gibbon strategies in a food competition task
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Scott Gulizio
Ph.D. student
Scott (he/him) is a Ph.D. student in the Cognitive and Comparative Psychology Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is a member of both the CCC lab at Hunter College as well as Prof. Andrew Delamater’s Neurobiology of Learning Lab at Brooklyn College.
He received his B.S. in Animal Behavior at Bucknell University in 2019 and his M.A. in Animal Behavior and Conservation from Hunter College in 2023. His Master’s thesis was on crop-foraging behavior of elephants in Thailand. His Ph.D. work now focuses on the study of cognitive processes including sequence learning, differential outcomes, reversal learning and memory, and he studies them in both Long-Evans (laboratory) rats and Asian elephants.
E-mail: sgulizio@gradcenter.cuny.edu
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Emma Lam
Ph.D. student
Emma (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in the CCC lab and a graduate student in the Cognitive and Comparative Psychology program at the Graduate Center at CUNY. She is interested in understanding how cognition and behavioral flexibility may impact how species are adapting to rapid environmental change.
Emma received her B.S. in Biology from the University of British Columbia in 2025. Her undergraduate honours thesis focused on exploratory diversity and innovative problem solving in raccoons.
E-mail: elam@gradcenter.cuny.edu
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Matthew Rudolph
Ph.D. student
Matthew graduated with an M.A. in the Animal Behavior and Conservation Program in the CCC lab in 2021, and is now a PhD student in the lab studying elephant olfactory cognition and human-elephant conflict mitigation in Thailand.
He received a B.S. in Biology from UCF in 2017. His M.A. project was focused on elephant olfaction as it relates to social learning. His Ph.D. work is focused on elephant olfaction and implementing novel human-elephant conflict mitigation techniques.
E-mail: mrudolph@gradcenter.cuny.edu
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Miranda Trapani
Ph.D. student
Miranda is a Ph.D. student in the CCC lab and a graduate student in the Cognitive and Comparative Psychology Program at the Graduate Center at CUNY.
Miranda received her B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience from Hunter College in 2017. Her M.A. project (which she also completed in the lab) was focused on applications of giant panda cognition and personality to conservation in practice. Her doctoral research centers on understanding socio-cognitive abilities in pandas, particularly cooperation and kin recognition.
Rachel Anello
M.A. student
Rachel (she/her) is a M.A. student in the CCC lab and the Animal Behavior & Conservation Program at Hunter College.
Rachel received her B.S. in Animal Behavior from Bucknell University in 2022. Her M.A. project is focused on visual aversive stimuli in wild Asian elephants as it relates to novel human-elephant conflict mitigation techniques.
Danielle Antonellis
M.A. student
Danielle (she/her) is a M.A. student in the CCC lab and the Animal Behavior and Conservation Program at Hunter College.
She received her B.A. in Animal Behavior from Bucknell University in 2017. Her M.A. project is focused on individual differences in innovative problem-solving among wild Asian elephants, which may be used to help predict and prevent human-elephant conflict.
June Stancil
M.A. student
June is a Master’s student in the CCC lab at Hunter College. She received her B.S. in Cognitive Science from UC San Diego in 2022. Her undergraduate thesis investigated valence, adaptive functions, and welfare implications of bubble production in Atlantic bottlenose dolphins.
Email: june.stancil04@myhunter.cuny.edu
Ashley Avalos
Certificate student
Ashley Avalos is a graduate student in the Animal Behavior and Conservation Psychology Program at Hunter College (CUNY). She received her B.A. in Media Studies and Studio Art, where her focus on animals in creative work led her to explore behavioral research. Ashley is interested in problem-solving, data analysis, and the ways comparative cognition can inform wildlife conservation.
Thitibon Plotnik, D.V.M.
Thai field research manager
Thitibon, also known as Cherry, is a Thai field research manager who oversees field researchers remotely and ensures that the U.S. and Thai teams work together to achieve their research goals.
She received her D.V.M. from Chulalongkorn University and worked as an elephant veterinarian in Thailand. She also earned an M.S. in Management from Assumption University of Thailand. She is interested in elephant care and management, education, research, and conservation.
Chudapa Chadarat
Field researcher
Chudapa, also known as Tuck, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University. Before joining the CCC Lab, she worked at the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre in Khao Yai with the Environmental and Social Foundation (ESF Thailand) beginning in 2022. In this role, she supported academic and environmental education programs, and organized science and environment camps. She also taught Thai and international students about elephant biology, conservation, and human–elephant interactions, and served as a project advisor for Youth Wildlife Guardians, guiding students in producing documentaries on endangered species.
Her key interests include elephant behavior, wildlife conservation education, human–elephant coexistence, and the integration of community-based learning into conservation efforts.
Yingboon Chongsomchai
Field researcher
Yingboon, also known as Im, received his B.S. in Biology from Rajabhat Mahasarakham University and an M.A. in Forest Biological Science from Kasetsart University in Thailand. His Master’s thesis focused on the home range size and habitat use of the Asiatic black bear. He is interested in wildlife biology and ecology, especially studies on and monitoring of mammals by radio tracking and camera trapping techniques.
Sangpa Dittakul
Field researcher
Sangpa, also known as Momo, received a Bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering at Khon Kaen University in Thailand. Her position with the CCC lab is her first job (she’s been a member of the team since 2022), and she joined due to her excitement for being a part of the conservation community. She has grown particularly interested in the behavior and intelligence of elephants and its importance for conservation. She is excited to continue studying their behavior and cognition to contribute to our growing knowledge of the species.
Lab Alumni
Alumni of the CCC lab have brought their skills and expertise to organizations such as:
Caitlyn Thai – M.A., ABC Program: Body States of Asian Elephants Within and Around Protected Areas in the Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary, Kanchanaburi, Thailand
Summer Fiori – M.A., ABC Program: The Impact of Location and Time of Day on the Expression of Social Behavior and Physical Maintenance of Wild Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) in Thailand
Emma Nguyen – Bronx High School of Science: Behavior and use of watering holes by wild Asian elephants in Thailand.
Ekaterina Balsan – Bronx High School of Science: Thick-billed parrots and the role of animal personality in conservation.
Sasha Montero – M.A., ABC Program: Using Day and Night Camera Trap Videos to Identify Wild Asian Elephants (Elephas Maximus) in the Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary, Kanchanaburi, Thailand.
Amanda Puitiza – M.A., ABC Program: Exploring Behavioral Flexibility, Problem-Solving, and Innovation in Captive Asian Elephants.
Serene Rivera – M.A., ABC Program: The Effect of the Lunar Cycle on the Demographics of Asian Elephants Observed in Open Areas in a Protected Wildlife Sanctuary and Surrounding Crop Fields
Sateesh Venkatesh – M.A., ABC Program: Variation in Personality among Semi-wild Myanmar Timber Elephants.
Joshua DiPaola – M.A., ABC Program: Investigating the use of sensory information to detect and track prey by the Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) with conservation in mind.
Tamara Aird – M.A., ABC Program: Conservation education in urban and rural schools in Thailand.
Ariel Lombardo Aghishian – M.A., ABC Program: Contagious yawning in cats.
Elizabeth Krisch – M.A., ABC Program: Accurate and inaccurate social cue following in domestic horses.
Dalia Miller – M.A., ABC Program: Object permanence in Asian elephants.
Mal Walton – M.A., ABC Program: Problem-solving in turtles
Leah Wersebe – M.A., ABC Program: Demographics of wild Asian elephants