I am a post-doctoral fellow in the Warneken Lab, part of the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. The aim of my research is to investigate the evolutionary origins and underlying mechanisms of human social behavior.

I utilize a comparative approach to investigate behavior, cognition, and neuroendocrinology, using inter-disciplinary methods from psychology, anthropology, and biology. My major research goals are: 1) to investigate the role of development in behvioral and cognitive evolution across taxa, 2) to tie patterns of neuroendocrine responsiveness to distinctions in social behavior between individuals and species, and 3) to identify unique cognitive mechanisms involved in human social behavior. I study these topics in human children and adolescents, humans' closest living relatives, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus), as well as a species that is distantly related to humans but has evolved living alongside humans, the domestic dog (Canis familiaris).

Current projects include: