JEFFREY LUCAS Professor 765-494-8112 LILY G-339 jlucas@purdue.edu Associated website(s): Lab Website , Lab Members , Courses , Decision Making , Publications

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PROFESSIONAL FACULTY RESEARCH

(Evolutionary ecology; behavioral ecology) Animal Communication, sensory ecology, hearing and call complexity in birds, use of dynamic game theory in animal behavior

BIO

My lab focuses on animal communication, both from the perspective of the receiver and from the perspective of the sender of signals. We are using a technique called Auditory Evoked Potentials to measure the properties of the auditory system. Our goal is to understand the adaptive significance of the processing of sound with an emphasis on the role that habitat and seasonality plays in signal processing. We were one of the first labs to demonstrate seasonal patterns in the peripheral processing of sound in birds, and we have expanded our understanding of seasonality in auditory processing in several recent publications.

We are also studying the degree to which complex signals convey "information" among birds. Studies of bird communication, in turn, provide an excellent model for understanding our own language. We have focused most of our work on Carolina chickadees -- birds that have one of the most complex vfocal systems of any species outside of humans. Indeed, chickadees are one of the few animals known to use syntax in their vocal signals.

Education

Ph.D., Florida, 1983

Professional Faculty Research

(Evolutionary ecology; behavioral ecology) Animal Communication, sensory ecology, hearing and call complexity in birds, use of dynamic game theory in animal behavior

Awards

Top Ten Outstanding Teachers in the College of Science for 2005

Elected Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society: 2009

Elected Fellow of AAAS: 2013

Other Activities

• Mentor for 4 students in the Purdue Emerging Leaders in Science Scholars program fall, spring 2020 -present: Andrea Rosado Chamorro, Paula Rivera Carrasquillo, Michael Terrill, Campbell Wagner
• Lab contributed poster presentations to Research-O-Rama, which is a demonstration of lab activities for the general public done on Purdue’s campus. Feb 3 2024. – Lucas Lab won an award for ‘Crowd Favorite’
• Judge for papers published by students or authors from Developing countries for an Elsevier award – through Animal Behavior Society Dec 2023
• Outreach: consulted with a high school student (Frances Canant – junior Hastings High School, Hastings on Hudson, New York) about my work on the social complexity hypothesis. 9 Feb 2022
• Outreach: consulted with a high school student (Dev Wahi – Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, MD) for an “Ask A Scientist” project. 28 Nov 2022
• Interviewed for the Purdue SuperHeroes of Science series (bit.ly/SOS_UTube). Video released 13 April 2020 at https://bit.ly/SOSLucas (audio at https://bit.ly/LibsynLucas ). Series of UTube videos directed toward middle/high school students and teachers about possibilities in science careers.
• Recorded a podcast for Arun Shankar (in India) entitled “Science talk with Arun Shankar” 16 Oct 2020
• Safe Zone Training. 20+22 Oct 2020
• Panel discussion 16 June 2021, Animal Behavior Society, Weaving the Future of Animal Behavior
• Mentor for the Animal Behavior Society “ABS 2021 Virtual Meeting Mentoring Program
• I was interviewed for an ‘Ask a Biologist’ podcast covering the chick-a-dee call system. 23 May 2016. This is a website constructed by Charles Kazilek, Arizona State Univ.
• Gave a talk about “Animal communication and estimates of complexity” to a workshop for STEM high school teachers charged with putting together high school modules that combine the STEM disciplines. 31 May 2016
• Animal Communication class included in list of ‘Cool classes’ at Purdue University, Advertised in Purdue’s Alumnus Magazine, Feb 2016

Editorial Board

• Biology Letters

Grant Review/Study Sections

• NSF, Graduate Research Fellowship Program, February 6-8, 2006
• NSF, Animal Behavior Proposal Review Panel, Oct 18-20, 2006
• NSF, Animal Behavior Proposal Review Panel, Oct 28-30, 2009
• NSF, Graduate Research Fellowship Program, January 22-24, 2014
• NSF, Graduate Research Fellowship Program, January 5-8, 2015
• NSF, Graduate Research Fellowship Program, January 22, 2020

Faculty Presentations

• 2023 Aug 31 Dept of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Hearing Seminar Series, Purdue University. “The duck project. What duck project? Glad you asked….”
• 2022 Feb 22. Douglas-Hart Nature Center Foundation Programs, Mattoon IL. “The ecology of hearing in birds: Something we never think about, but the insights can change the way we think about birdsong”
• 2022 Jan 16-21. Winter Animal Behavior Conference (all participants are invited), Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Present invited talk entitled “Thinking out loud about sexually selected signals”
• 2022 Sept 8 Dept of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Hearing Seminar Series, Purdue University. “A tale of two stories: hearing, song and culture”
• 2021 Dec 9 Working Together to Resolve Environmental Effects of Wind Energy (WREN) Webinar: Raptor Behaviour and Physiology as it Relates to Wind Energy Development. “Modeling bird turbine interactions”
• 2021 Sept 30 Dept of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Hearing Seminar Series, Purdue University. “What resources fit into the hierarchy of life? Information is one…”
• 2021 Aug 3-6 ABS Virtual Conference. Invited Symposium talk: “ Constraints bring clarity to animal behavior: Re-integrating life sciences through resource limitation”
• 2021 Mar 25 Dept of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Hearing Seminar Series, Purdue University. “RCR Discussion of Rigor and Reproducibility: power analysis, open science/pre-registration, etc.” – I facilitated the discussion on power analysis
• 2021 Mar 23 Dept of Biology, Indiana State University. “Plasticity in the auditory system of birds”
• 2021 Mar 23 Working Together to Resolve Environmental Effects of Wind Energy (WREN) Webinar: Raptor Behaviour and Physiology as it Relates to Wind Energy Development. “Wind turbines, and the auditory system of golden and bald eagles”
• 2021 Jan 26. Douglas-Hart Nature Center Foundation Programs, Mattoon IL. “Why are chickadees interesting? The chick-a-dee ‘language’ (among other things)”

Conferences

2024

International Production & Processing Expo 2024. 29 Jan-1 Feb, Atlanta GA. J Schober, S Wesley, I Taylor, C Plue, M Bergam, J Lucas, G Fraley. Talk given by J Schober: “What’s in a quack? Effects of Pekin duck vocalizations on conspecific physiology”.

Animal Behavior Society Conference, 26-29 June. Western University Canada (London, Ont.). Talk given by J Lucas: “Auditory processing vs. mate choice via coercion and resistance, persuasion and skepticism”

Talk by R Najarro-Flores, JR Lucas. “Preliminary results on the auditory processing of dialect-specific properties of Carolina chickadee songs”

Purdue Office of Undergraduate Research: 9-16 April. B. Ward, J. Jenkins, JR Lucas. “Connectivity, Relative Pitch, and Transposition in Carolina Chickadees ( Poecile carolinensis ) of Central Indiana”

2023

Animal Behavior Society Conference, 11-15 July, Portland OR. JB Jenkins, M Chaney, D. Jenkins, JR Lucas. “Habitat fragmentation and connectivity facilitates song diversity in a species with typically stable traditions”. R Trapp, J Lucas, E Fernandez-Juricic. “Avian visual exploratory behavior when solving a novel foraging task”

Poultry Science Association Annual Meeting, J Schober, JR Lucas, G Fraley. Talk given by J Schober. “What’s in a quack? Effects of Pekin duck vocalizations on conspecific physiology” J Schober, S Wesley, I Taylor, C Plue, M Bergman, JR Lucas, GS Fraley.

Poster: “When is a peep a fear peep? Characterization of chicken vocalizations during an isolation fear test”. J Schober, M. Ulrey, A Troyer, K Christenson, JR Lucas, GS Fraley.

The Wildlife Society, Nov 5, Louisville KY. M Chaney, G Gallagher, J Lucas, E Fernandez-Juricic. Talk given by M Chaney. “Modeling and Empirically testing the application of laser bird deterrents to estimate the potential risk of eye injury to a bird”.

Gordon Research Conference, Neuroethology: Behavior, Evolution and Neurobiology. 6-11 June. Mount Snow, VT. R A Najarro-Flores, JR Lucas. Poster given by RAN-F: “Stimulus design for the evaluation of auditory processing of birds with song dialects.”

Purdue Office of Undergraduate Research: 20 Oct. B. Ward, J. Jenkins, JR Lucas. “The effect of regional variations on territorial defense in chickadees in Indians”

Sensorium: 11-12 Dec. R Trapp, E Fernandez-Juricic, JR Lucas. Poster given by RT: “Avian visual exploratory behavior when exposed to a novel task”. RA Najarro-Flores, JR Lucas. “Processing of dialect-specific songs in Carolina chickadees”