PSYCHOBIOLOGY

Area Head:   

UC Davis offers a wealth of opportunities for training in psychobiology. Our faculty is unusually large, diverse and active, with expertise in the full range of biological influences on behavior, including evolutionary, ecological, social, neural, molecular, and hormonal aspects. Students can pursue truly interdisciplinary research using a wide variety of methods and theoretical approaches. Student training is enhanced by our faculty's affiliations with several internationally known, interdisciplinary units including the Animal Behavior Graduate Group, the California National Primate Research Center, the Center for Neuroscience, the Neuroscience Graduate Group and the Ecology Graduate Group. We offer students a stimulating and congenial work atmosphere. There are excellent field, laboratory, computer, and library facilities as well as exceptional colleagues in other areas of psychology and ancillary biological sciences.

UC Davis is a world-class research university. Its Psychology Department contains five major "areas": Developmental, Perception-Cognition,Psychobiology, Social-Personality and Quantitative. Boundaries between the areas are fluid and students are encouraged to take seminars in all five.

Davis itself and the surrounding area offer rich intellectual, cultural and recreational opportunities. The campus is located about 15 miles from Sacramento (the state capital), roughly 50 miles from the Napa and Sonoma valleys (wine country), 72 miles from the Bay Area (Berkeley and San Francisco), and about 150 miles from such spectacular resort and wilderness areas as Lake Tahoe and Yosemite.

 

[top]

Faculty

          Karen Bales's website
(Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of Maryland, 2000)
Comparative neurobiology of monogamy
          John Capitanio's website
(Research Psychologist, Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 1982)
Primate social relationships and personality, psychoneuroimmunology
          Richard Coss's website
(Professor, Ph.D.,University of Reading, England, 1973 )
Developmental psychobiology; environmental psychology
          Kenneth Henry's website
(Professor Emeritus, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1970) )
Audition, behavior, genetics
          Leah Krubitzer's website
(Professor, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, 1989)
Evolutionary neurobiology
          Sally Mendoza's website
(Research Psychologist, Ph.D., Stanford University, 1978)
Primate social relationships and personality, behavioral neuroendocrinology
          Donald Owings's website
(Professor, Ph.D., University of Washington, 1972)
Animal behavior; communication, antipredator behavior
*
          Gregg Reconzone's website
(Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco, 1990)
neural correlates of auditory and visual perception
          Jeffrey Schank's website
(Professor, Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1991)
Mathematical modeling of social and physiological processes
          Joanna Scheib's website
(Associate Adjunct Professor, Ph.D., McMaster University, 1996)
Psychosocial issues in donor-assisted family formation; mate choice and reproductive relationships
          Brian Trainor's website
(Assistant Professor, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin 2003)
Behavioral endocrinology, genes and behavior

*Faculty in the Psychobiology area of Psychology who also have primary appointments in other departments.

[top]

Related Faculty

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

  • Tim Caro
  • Tom Coombs-Hahn
  • John Eadie
  • Richard Grosberg
  • Lawrence V. Harper
  • Ann Hedrick
  • Lynne Isbell
  • Brenda McCowan
  • Richard McElreath
  • Gail Patricelli
  • Peter Richerson
  • Andy Sih

 

Communication

  • Benjamin Hart
  • Lynette A. Hart
  • Brenda McCowan
  • Gail Patricelli

 

Animal Management and Welfare

  • Lynette A. Hart
  • Brenda McCowan
  • Joy Mench
  • James Millam
  •  

Physiology and Behavior

  • David Amaral
  • Kenneth H. Britten
  • Ernest S. Chang
  • Tom Coombs-Hahn
  • Benjamin Hart
  • Pete Klimley
  • James Millam
  • Brian Mulloney
  • Gabrielle A. Nevitt

 

Behavior and Conservation

  • Tim Caro
  • John Eadie
  • Pete Klimley
  • Brenda McCowan
  • Gail Patricelli
  • Andy Sih

[top]