For over 25 years, our lab has applied social network theory and complexity science to health and welfare — from captive primate colonies to wild populations at the human–animal interface, and even to the communication systems of whales.
The premise
Patterns of health and well–being in human and animal societies emerge from the same underlying dynamics — the shape, strength, and quality of social relationships. We study how the mathematics of a network connects to real outcomes: resilience, stress, disease spread, and welfare.
Our approach is interdisciplinary — computational biology, epidemiology, and behavioral ecology — applied at the human–animal interface. It has produced tools like our Percolation and Conductance method for tracing information flow through social networks, alongside decades of fieldwork spanning primate colonies, human–wildlife conflict zones, and the open ocean.
Research spotlight
A related project growing out of our humpback whale research, the CetaSCAPE Initiative studies cetacean Sociality, Communication, Agency, Perception, and Exchange as one interconnected framework.
Collaborating institutions
Alaska Whale Foundation · Chulalongkorn University · Hunter College · Himachal Pradesh Forest Department · Mahasarakham University · Roatan Institute for Marine Science · Thailand Primate Center · Universiti Putra Malaysia · Universiti Sains Malaysia
Prospective students
We welcome inquiries from prospective graduate students and postdocs interested in social complexity, animal welfare, and computational behavioral ecology.