https://woolleylab.com/alumni daily 0.75 2025-05-15 https://woolleylab.com/home daily 1.0 2025-05-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1612820982979-4G9XNAPD2SI6MZ1NBMIK/12.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1612820860039-X32FNA1DZL60ZE4VDASI/10.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1612820964227-WOAP0XQ6A10WYC06HCPC/8.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1612820718264-CL9A4O0KPMI1POV1XJ07/7.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1612820896709-3HPMDH7IIOY4C1BQ6QML/9.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1612820827076-RC0JCDZ96OQL2SOQ93B6/11.jpg Home https://woolleylab.com/our-mission daily 0.75 2025-05-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1612289262437-22YGVA5T5VMM0JK6VDFT/F1.large.jpg Research Histology. Image showing the circuitry of the auditory pallium. The different regions appear to be organized in a manner similar to the cortical layers in mammals (adapted from Calabrese and Woolley, 2015) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1612305227932-LY342ZJLQ39VYMHHH8SK/Chr7example.jpg Research DNA sequencing. Nucleotide diversity in 50kb sliding windows along chromosome 7 for six species of Estrildid finches. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1612387955032-BPC22T64R2R98YASBHWR/image.png Research Microscopy. Image showing the midbrain SNc/VTA complex. Dopaminergic neurons are red and CTB retrogradely labeled neurons are green. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1612287563772-D15SZSAT4OEM08R7TXUO/good+multispecies+for+website.jpg Research Cross-species tutoring. This approach broadens the ranges of neural and behavioral comparisons we can make. The goal is to establish how the brain evolves and adapts for behavior. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/5fc098cc-004f-4faf-baab-90d9d387e324/Screen+Shot+2021-07-13+at+9.28.54+PM.png Research Auditory behavior recording and analysis. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1612289439317-27S60BWLI5PPRNOPZHGC/Screen+Shot+2021-02-02+at+12.55.25+PM.png Research In vivo electrophysiology. Spike rasters show song evoked responses of a single neuron from zebra finch (ZF) and long-tailed (LF) finch males (adapted from Moore and Woolley, 2019) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1612287458769-XMFCDTK0C0XG92R3FO8K/me+in+aviary+columbia.jpeg Research Dr. Sarah Woolley holds a zebra finch in the lab's aviary. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1626224782613-KODWXB0Y956J98RGJWBS/multispecies+phylogeny+w+pics+WEBSITE+2021.png Research - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1613157274336-EDFDAPBDATWUFGFCNTSE/my+hybrid+bf+lf.jpg Research From right to left: long-tailed finch (father), bengalese finch (mother), and their hybrid. https://woolleylab.com/get-involved daily 0.75 2023-02-03 https://woolleylab.com/media daily 0.75 2021-07-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1610434812161-BUCWAQAD089POM4B3G3C/image-asset.jpeg Outreach - Latest Research Scientists Identify Brain Region That Enables Young Songbirds to Change Their Tune Drs. Moore and Woolley's recent publication offers insight into songbirds and humans’ remarkable ability to learn language. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1610579320829-20V1F3CJTBHJ9AQCEU16/image.jpg Outreach - Community & Friends Some Songbirds Have Brains Specially Designed to Find Mates for Life The New York Times feature article on songbirds, song learning, and the lab’s awesome research. https://woolleylab.com/sarah-woolley daily 0.75 2023-02-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1611267909045-XGHALC3RTC39L33RVUXO/smnw+headshot+2016+chart.jpg Bio - Sarah M.N. Woolley, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology; Principal Investigator at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute Professor Woolley received her bachelor's degree in biology and psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder. She holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience and behavior (working with Prof. Edwin Rubel) from the University of Washington School of Medicine. She conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Washington with Prof. John Casseday and at the University of California, Berkeley with Prof. Frederic Theunissen. In 2006, she joined the faculty at Columbia University in the Department of Psychology. She served as chairperson for the department between 2013 and 2016, and as co-director of the Center for Integrative Animal Behavior between 2015 and 2018. In 2014, she became an elected member of the Kavli Institute for Brain Science and Principal Investigator at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. Her research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and Columbia Research Initiatives in Science & Engineering (RISE). Download Sarah’s CV https://woolleylab.com/publications daily 0.75 2026-04-02 https://woolleylab.com/team-3 daily 0.75 2025-01-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/ef0425e2-8a8b-4c46-b7d9-536c5030cb3d/8.jpg Current members - Jacob Edwards, M.S Ph.D. Student https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/093df777-72f0-4952-88bc-7f2f2bcb8238/GeorgeHeadshot+.jpg Current members - George Ordiway, Ph.D. Tobias Keene, D.D.S. Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Dr. Tobias Keene brings a bit of unabashed Southern hospitality to all his patients. He moved to Washington, D.C. over thirty years ago as a freshman at Ivy College. Right after graduation, he attended World University’s School of Dentistry. Before opening Keene Dental in 1994, he worked for free clinics and some of the finest practices in the District. He is part of the 123 Dental Association and stays up-to-date on the latest dental discoveries. When not striving to keep his patients happy and healthy, he’s enjoys hiking with his family in Rock Creek Park. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/e2d7ad28-328b-40e8-89ac-36c0fb32d34c/Moises.jpg Current members - Moises Rivera, Ph.D. Tobias Keene, D.D.S. Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Dr. Tobias Keene brings a bit of unabashed Southern hospitality to all his patients. He moved to Washington, D.C. over thirty years ago as a freshman at Ivy College. Right after graduation, he attended World University’s School of Dentistry. Before opening Keene Dental in 1994, he worked for free clinics and some of the finest practices in the District. He is part of the 123 Dental Association and stays up-to-date on the latest dental discoveries. When not striving to keep his patients happy and healthy, he’s enjoys hiking with his family in Rock Creek Park. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/8769b1cb-04b9-48d2-b93f-db07ae9a07d8/headshot.jpg Current members - Rebecca Saez, Ph.D. Tobias Keene, D.D.S. Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Dr. Tobias Keene brings a bit of unabashed Southern hospitality to all his patients. He moved to Washington, D.C. over thirty years ago as a freshman at Ivy College. Right after graduation, he attended World University’s School of Dentistry. Before opening Keene Dental in 1994, he worked for free clinics and some of the finest practices in the District. He is part of the 123 Dental Association and stays up-to-date on the latest dental discoveries. When not striving to keep his patients happy and healthy, he’s enjoys hiking with his family in Rock Creek Park. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/afbcec88-f5e2-4556-a5e7-975963fdfa25/Keanu+headshot.jpg Current members - Keanu Shadron, Ph.D. Tobias Keene, D.D.S. Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Dr. Tobias Keene brings a bit of unabashed Southern hospitality to all his patients. He moved to Washington, D.C. over thirty years ago as a freshman at Ivy College. Right after graduation, he attended World University’s School of Dentistry. Before opening Keene Dental in 1994, he worked for free clinics and some of the finest practices in the District. He is part of the 123 Dental Association and stays up-to-date on the latest dental discoveries. When not striving to keep his patients happy and healthy, he’s enjoys hiking with his family in Rock Creek Park. https://woolleylab.com/jacob daily 0.75 2023-04-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1612564976658-KNTXJZIKULRJ3GHBNCVD/8.png Jacob - Ph.D Student, Psychology Jacob is fascinated by how development and evolution both produce and overcome constraints on perceptual systems. He's currently recording neuronal activity in the auditory cortex of multiple estrildid finch species, relating the acoustic sensitivity of neurons to variability in natural vocalizations and synthetic stimuli. LinkedIn See Jacob's story on The Science Life https://woolleylab.com/moises daily 0.75 2023-05-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/72ea8ef4-6312-4eab-9fd0-37c074b0b2a4/Moises.jpg Moises - Research Associate Moises is a post-doctoral research associate in the Woolley lab. He earned his Ph.D. from the City University of New York, during which time he studied and published his findings on the effects of acoustic stimulation on both immediate early gene expression and epigenetic regulation in the auditory forebrain of embryonic songbirds. Moises began working in the Woolley lab in 2016 during his PhD and has led analyses using various statistical and machine learning models in order to classify the songs of Estrildid finches and link them to phylogeny. Moises has also used a suite of behavioral tests to explore the effects of genetic and social conditions on the preferences, discrimination abilities, filial associations, and sexual selection of multiple estrildid species, including hybridized, cross-fostered, and "bi-specifically" reared finches. Moises supervises husbandry of the Woolley bird colonies, including the breeding of various African, Australian, and Asian estrildids. Moises has served as an instructor of statistics and experimental psychology courses at Hunter College since 2018. Moises continues to co-mentor Columbia students with Sarah, leading to successful conference presentations and theses. Moises is broadly interested in neuroethology, data science, and statistics, and hopes to eventually apply his skills and love for data collection and analysis in industry. Moises is a lover of living things and spends much of his time out of lab caring for his own small assemblage of birds and plants at home as well as his zestful dog Astro(cyte). See Moises’ CV See Moises' LinkedIn Publications: Rivera, M., Edwards, J. A., Hauber, M. E., & Woolley, S. M. N. (2023). Machine learning and statistical classification of birdsong link vocal acoustic features with phylogeny. Scientific Reports, 13:7076. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33825-5 Yeh, Y.-T., Rivera, M., & Woolley, S. M. N. (2023). Auditory sensitivity and vocal acoustics in five species of estrildid songbirds. Animal Behaviour, 195:107-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.11.002 *Antonson, N. D., *Rivera, M., Abolins-Abols, M., Kleindorfer, S., Liu, W.-c., & Hauber, M. E. (2021). Early auditory experience alters genome-wide methylation in the auditory forebrain of songbird embryos. Neuroscience Letters, 755, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2021.135917Covered in Medical Xpress. *Shared first-authorship; these authors contributed equally to this work. Rivera, M., Cealie, M., Hauber, M. E., Kleindorfer, S., & Liu, W.-c. (2019). Neural activation in response to conspecific songs in zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) embryos and nestlings. NeuroReport, 30:217-221, https://doi.org/10.1097/WNR.0000000000001187 Covered in IFLScience! Rivera, M., Louder, M. I. M., Kleindorfer, S., Liu, W.-c., & Hauber, M. E. (2018). Avian prenatal auditory stimulation: Progress and perspectives. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 72:112, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-018-2528-0 https://woolleylab.com/teaching daily 0.75 2025-05-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1618246704773-OW9949FA7TW6UMF6YEQO/unsplash-image-L4-BDd01wmM.jpg Teaching https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1618246845489-DNJK77B5TKVWM9VW0FH8/unsplash-image-ASKeuOZqhYU.jpg Teaching https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1618247250210-437OBP97DYGW7IT08YPZ/unsplash-image-cw-cj_nFa14.jpg Teaching https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffd12af6fdcad54337c7557/1618248288706-XGAVSQSZ5HMY76RNWOU1/unsplash-image-xtLIgpytpck.jpg Teaching