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Fellows of the ISN

Fellows of the International Society for Neuroethology is an honor bestowed on members of the ISN for meritorious efforts to advance the science of neuroethology.

ISN Fellows Nomination & Selection Procedures

Paul Katz
University of Massachusetts Amherst

Paul Katz has been an active member of ISN since 1989 when he received the Young Investigator Award at the ICN in Berlin. He served as ISN President from 2010 to 2012. Paul co-directed the Neural Systems and Behavior Course at the MBL in Woods Hole from 2008 – 2012. He co-chaired the Gordon Conference on Neuroethology in 2008 with Catherine Carr. In 2022, Paul gave the Franz Huber Lecture at the ICN in Lisbon. Paul received a BA and MS in from Northwestern University in 1982. He received his PhD in 1989 at Cornell University working with Ron Harris-Warrick on the crab stomatogastric system. In 1988, he was a Grass Fellow at the MBL and then did a postdoc at Brandeis University with Irwin Levitan. For five years, he worked as a Research Assistant Professor in the lab of Bill Frost at University of Texas Health Science Center. Together, they published several papers on neuromodulation intrinsic to the swim central pattern generator of the sea slug, Tritonia. In 1997, Paul relocated to Georgia State University, where he attained the rank of Regents Professor.

Paul’s lab has focused on neuromodulation and the evolution of neural circuits in sea slugs. In 2017, Paul moved to the University of Massachusetts Amherst to direct the Initiative on Neurosciences, where he shifted the focus of his research from the swim CPG circuits composed of a small number of large neurons to studying the development and structure of the much larger number of small neurons using a nudibranch that can be raised in the lab, Berghia stephanieae.

-Catherine Rankin

Ana Silva
Universidad de la República de Uruguay

Ana was born and lives in Uruguay, where she is a professor at the Universidad de la República. She served as the head of the Departamento de Biología Celular y Molecular from 2015 to 2022 and as the president of the Sociedad Uruguaya de Neurociencias, among other prestigious positions in her scientific community.

Very early in her career, Ana found a prolific ground for her research in the study of social communication among electric fish. In more recent years, Ana has expanded her research interests to include chronobiological modulation in fish and humans. A review of her list of publications reveals a fruitful and coherent path of research in the field of neuroethology. Her studies on Uruguayan electric fish have highlighted the importance of focusing on species available in local biotopes due to the originality of the questions and results that can be obtained in doing so.

Her work is acknowledged internationally, as shown by her election as a main plenary speaker at the XIII International Congress of Neuroethology held in Brisbane, Australia (2018) and her participation in multiple international meetings where her work was prominently featured. The enthusiasm she inspires among students and peers was particularly evident at the 2016 ISN meeting in Montevideo, which was the first ISN meeting held in a Latin American country and a complete success, thanks to Ana’s exceptional efforts as president of the local organizing committee.

-Lidia Szczupak and Martin Giurfa

Justin Marshall
QBI, University of Queensland

Justin Marshall was born on January 8, 1962. His father, Norman Bertram Marshall, was an authority on deep-sea biology, and his mother, Olga, was a noted biological illustrator. Justin attended the University of St Andrews, graduating in 1985, and completed his PhD at the University of Sussex in 1991, supervised by Michael Land. He moved to the Vision Touch and Hearing Research Center at the University of Queensland in 1996 and to the Queensland Brain Institute in 2008.

Marshall’s research explores the neurobiology of perception, especially vision. He works primarily on color vision and polarized-light vision in marine animals, but he has also studied visual neuroanatomy and visual ecology in general. His research includes marine invertebrates, primarily stomatopod crustaceans and cephalopods, as well as marine vertebrates and animals inhabiting rainforests. He has also been involved in engineering applications and instrument development.

Marshall has over 300 publications, many of which appear in top-level journals including Science, Nature, Current Biology, and PNAS. His coauthored books include the award-winning Visual Ecology and Coral Reefs and Climate Change. He also edits books, including the Springer Series in Vision Research. He has mentored 30 PhD students from 11 countries and 19 postdocs. He has received numerous international awards and is a member of the Australian Academy of Science.

Marshall is very active in public outreach, with the hugely successful CoralWatch citizen science project and contributions to numerous scientific documentaries and public articles. He organized the highly successful 2018 meeting of the ICN in Brisbane, Australia.

-Tom Cronin

Andrea Simmons
Brown University

Andrea M. Simmons is a scientific leader in the field of auditory neuroethology. She earned her B.S. in psychology and history from the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Harvard University. She conducted postdoctoral research at Cornell University in the laboratory of Robert Capranica, a distinguished founder of the ISN.

Andrea is currently a full professor at Brown University in the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Science, with a joint appointment in the Department of Neuroscience. She is also a member of the Carney Institute for Brain Science. Andrea is an elected Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and editor of the 2002 Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, Acoustic Communication, which is now considered a classic book in the field. She is also an associate editor of the Journal of Comparative Physiology A, a premier neuroethology research publication outlet. She is the author of over 135 peer-reviewed research articles and 15 book chapters.

Andrea has a long and distinguished record of service to the ISN. She served on the ISN Awards Committee and the Council, and she is currently Chair of the ISN Young Investigator Award Committee. She was Scientific Program Committee Co-Chair of the College Park ICN in 2012 and a Scientific Program Committee Member of the Vancouver ICN in 2007. Andrea greatly deserves to join the ranks of ISN Fellows for her distinguished contributions to the field of auditory neuroethology and her service to our community.

-Cynthia Moss

Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard
University of Southern Denmark

Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard is a biologist and neuroscientist with expertise in bioacoustics, auditory physiology, and the biophysics of the middle ear in amphibians and reptiles. His research focuses on sound localization, non-tympanic hearing, and underwater hearing, which he has studied in amphibians, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, and birds, as well as on modeling, including robotics, of auditory systems. He co-directs the Center for Biorobotics at the University of Southern Denmark and is vice chairman of the Danavox Jubilee Foundation for symposia in audiology (International Symposia on Auditory and Audiological Research, ISAAR).

Dr. Christensen-Dalsgaard received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern Denmark in 1990, where he has been a Lektor since 1999. He has published almost 200 scientific papers and has a long history of discoveries, influential publications, and contributions to the field of neuroethology. As a graduate student with Axel Michelsen, he learned laser vibrometry and, early in his career, was the first to use vibrometry to understand directional hearing in frogs. Importantly, Dr. Christensen-Dalsgaard combines this technical leadership in vibrometry and acoustics with major contributions to studies of underwater hearing, vibration detection, and directional hearing.

Dr. Christensen-Dalsgaard has a long history of service to the neuroethology community, including the biennial international Bioacoustics field course taught at SDU field stations. In addition to his scientific expertise, Dr. Christensen-Dalsgaard is a noted expert and performer of medieval music.

-Catherine Carr

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