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 assistant 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. Dr. Plotnik has earned degrees from both Emory University (M.A. and Ph.D.) and Cornell University (B.S.). He lives in New York City.

Hunter College
Graduate Center, CUNY

E-mail: joshua.plotnik@hunter.cuny.edu

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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Lyndsay Hage (She/Her)

Ph.D. student

Lyndsay is a Ph.D. student in the CCC lab, the Marine Mammal Communication and Cognition lab, and a graduate student in the Cognitive and Comparative Psychology Program at the Graduate Center at CUNY.

She received her B.S. in Psychology and Biology from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls in 2015 and is finishing her M.A. thesis in the Animal Behavior and Conservation Program at Hunter College on dolphin visual perception and social behavior. Her research interests include a comparative approach to animal social cognition and social dynamics and how this research can help inform conservation efforts in education and human-wildlife conflict mitigation.

E-mail: lhage@gradcenter.cuny.edu

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Sarah Jacobson

Ph.D. student

Sarah 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 received her B.A. in Neuroscience from Colorado College in 2013. Her Ph.D. project is focused on Asian elephant crop-raiding behavior, and how individual variation in elephant behavior and cognition can help predict human-elephant conflict.

E-mail: sjacobson@gradcenter.cuny.edu

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Matthew Rudolph

Master’s student, Animal Behavior and Conservation Program

Matthew is a Master’s student in the CCC lab.

He received a B.S. in Biology from UCF in 2017. His M.A. project will be focused on elephant olfaction as it relates to comparative cognitive research and applies to Human Elephant Conflict.

E-mail: Matthew.Rudolph39@myhunter.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 was focused on applications of giant panda cognition and personality to conservation in practice.

Serene Rivera

Master’s student, Animal Behavior and Conservation Program

Serene is a Master’s student in the CCC lab.

Serene is pursuing her Master’s focusing on animal behavior. Her senior thesis project was focused on the effect of the lunar cycle on elephant crop-raiding activity in Thailand.

Mal Walton

Master’s student, Animal Behavior and Conservation Program

Mal Walton is a Master’s student in the CCC lab.

She received a B.A. in Biology and a B.A. in Theatre Arts Performance from SUNY New Paltz in 2014. Her M.A. project will be focused on reptile cognition.

Leah Wersebe

Master’s student, Animal Behavior and Conservation Program

Leah is a Master’s student in the CCC lab.

Leah Wersebe received a B.A. in Global & International Studies and Cinema & Screen Studies from SUNY Oswego in 2012 and an M.A. in International Politics & Business from NYU in 2015. Her M.A. project is on the demographics of Asian elephant populations in western Thailand.

E-mail: Leah.Wersebe35@myhunter.cuny.edu

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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:  Behavior and use of watering holes by wild Asian elephants in Thailand.

Ekaterina Balsan – Bronx High School: 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.

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.