Victoria Braithwaite
Professor of Fisheries and Biology

Research Interests

I study different aspects of animal behavior. I am particularly interested in animal cognition – how animals perceive the world and how they learn and remember information. My research addresses why animal cognition varies, for example what factors affect how clever an animal can become, how does early experience influence affective state (positive and negative outlook), and how do these kinds of effect influence decision making ability?

Although I am interested in determining the mechanisms that underlie cognition and decision making, it is important to understand the evolutionary history and environmental context that has shaped how an animal behaves – my work is therefore multi-disciplinary bridging mechanism with function.

My group and I use a variety of different species to explore different kinds of question. Several of our projects involve fish – particularly our research focusing on cognitive ecology, where we wish to determine how different ecologies and contrasting selection pressures influence learning and memory processes.  While several aspects of fish behavior can be considered to be complex, they generate their behavior through a relatively simple vertebrate nervous system - the simplicity of their brain provides us with an opportunity to study specific mechanisms. In this way, my group and I tackle aspects of neurobiology, physiology all the way through to behavior in the whole organism. More recently we have begun to use rodent models to explore how changes in affective mood state influence decision making.

Recent Publicity
BBC Newsnight interview on fish pain and commercial fishing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDtwZOISk44

CV
Professor II, UniResearch, Bergen, Norway, 2015-Present
Co-Director Center for Brain, Behavior & Cognition (CBBC) 2012,-Present
Associate Director of the Penn State Institute of the Neurosciences, 2010-2012
Visiting Professor of Biology, University of Bergen, Norway,  2008-2011
Professor of Fisheries & Biology, Penn State University, USA, 2007-Present
Reader, Edinburgh University, UK, 2007
Senior Lecturer, Edinburgh University, UK, 2004-2006
Lecturer, Edinburgh University, UK,  1995- 2004
Post-Doc, Glasgow University & Freshwater Fish Laboratories, UK, 1993-1995
DPhil (PhD) Christopher Welch Scholar, Oxford University, UK, 1993
BA(Hons) Zoology, Oxford University, UK, 1989


Honors and Awards
2016 Fellow, The Linnean Society of London
2016: Storer Endowment Lecture - Major Issues in Biological Sciences, UC Davis, USA 
2015 Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies, Berlin, Germany 
2014 Harbaugh Faculty Scholar
2011 Edward D. Bellis Award, Ecology, Penn State University 
2009 Huggins Lecturer - Acadia University, Canada
2006 Fisheries Society of the British Isles Medal
2005 Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation
1989-1992 Christopher Welch Scholar, Oxford University, UK


Click here for a list of scientific publications and book chapters

Other Books and Articles:

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A popular science book discussing the scientific evidence, philosophy and ethics surrounding the fish pain debate.

This edited volume of Fish Behaviour came out in 2008.

To listen to a summary of the facts about fish pain listen to an interview on Quirks and Quarks (Canadian Broadcasting Company). Link to the following website and scroll down:

http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/episode/2010/05/22/synthetic-cell-greenland-rising-adapted-for-altitude-monkeys-munch-on-a-locust-lunch-do-fish-feel-pa/

For a summary of whether fish feel pain here is a copy of an Op-Ed piece I wrote for the Los Angeles Times:

Hooked on a Myth.pdf

Contact Details

Dr. Victoria A. Braithwaite
Department of Ecosystem Science and Management
The Pennsylvania State University
410 Forest Resources Building
University Park, PA 16802

Email: v.braithwaite@psu.edu
Phone: 814-865-4675