Human behavioral ecology, marine ecology, cognitive sciences, decision making under uncertainty

My research involves the application of behavioral ecological models to archaeological problems with a focus on Pacific Island societies.

PhD student in the Agent Systems Research Group of the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the VU University Amsterdam. Current research focuses on Modeling Human Behavior and exploring Serious Games interactions with humans.

Applying agent-based models to archaeological data, using modern ethnoarchaeological data as an analog for behavior.

My interests is always on the dynamic interactions of human and their habitat (nature/built environment, etc.). At the moment my researches focus on the political-ecology analysis of human-nature interactions and social-ecological systems analysis. I am interested in using Agent-Based Model to support my works. I have been using ABM for quite some years, although not putting too much focus on it at the moment.

Human-wildlife social-ecological systems, resilience and learning in complex adaptive systems, climate change, disturbance ecology, and historical ecology

My interests center around long-term human ecology and landscape dynamics with ongoing projects in the Mediterranean (late Pleistocene through mid-Holocene) and recent work in the American Southwest (Holocene-Archaic). I’ve done fieldwork in Spain, Bosnia, and various locales in North America and have expertise in hunter/gatherer and early farming societies, geoarchaeology, lithic technology, and evolutionary theory, with an emphasis on human/environmental interaction, landscape dynamics, and techno-economic change.

Quantitative methods are critical to archaeological research, and socioecological sciences in general. They are an important focus of my research, especially emphasizing dynamic modeling, spatial technologies (including GIS and remote sensing), statistical analysis, and visualization. I am a member of the open source GRASS GIS international development team that is making cutting edge spatial technologies available to researchers and students around the world.

I conduct long-term behavioral and ecological field research on several species in the primate community of Amazonian Ecuador to investigate the ways in which ecological conditions (such as the abundance and distribution of food resources) and the strategies of conspecifics together shape primate behavior and social relationships and ultimately determine the kinds of societies we see primates living in. This is a crucial and central focus in evolutionary anthropology, as understanding the ways in which behavior and social systems are shaped by environmental pressures is a fundamental part of the discipline.

I complement my field studies with molecular genetic laboratory work and agent-based simulation modeling in order to address issues that are typically difficult to explore through observational studies alone, including questions about dispersal behavior, gene flow, mating patterns, population structure, and the fitness consequences of individual behavior. In collaboration with colleagues, I have also started using molecular techniques to investigate a number of broader questions concerning the evolutionary history, social systems, and ecological roles of various New World primates.