Curriculum
Tyrone Lucon Xiccato
Date of birth: 17 February 1988; Fiscal Code: LCNTRN88B17B563I
Address: via Cavini 3, 35010 San Giorgio delle Pertiche, Padova, Italy
Position: Assistant Professor in Ethology (RTD-A), Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara.
Email: tyrone.luconxiccato@unife.it
EDUCATION AND ACADEMIC POSITIONS
2018-2020 Assistant professor, University of Ferrara
2016-2017 Post-doc, University of Padova
2016 PhD in Psychological Sciences (Psychobiology), University of Padova
2012 MS in Evolutionary Biology, University of Padova (110 cum laude/110)
2010 Bachelor in Biology University of Padova (score: 108/110)
RESEARCH
GRANTS
Grant awards as PI
2019 FAR grant from University of Ferrara (4700 euro)
2018 FIR from University of Ferrara (5000 euro). Project evaluation: excellent; first out of 46 candidates.
2018 FAR grant from University of Ferrara (4600 euro)
2013 Individual AID grant from University of Washington (2000 UD)
Grants awards as collaborator
2015 PRIN 2015 n. 2015SFFATB7-SH4 ‘Optical illusions as a non-invasive tool to study the visual system. Toward the development of animal models’ from Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca (159.000 euro)
2014 DOR (quota ex 60%) 2014 n. 60A17-9047/14 ‘Lateralization and numerical abilities’ from University of Padova
2013 PRAT 2013 n. CPDA131092 ‘Fish as model to study lateralization of non-verbal numerical abilities’ from University of Padova (33.581 euro)
2013 DOR (quota ex 60%) 2013 n. 60A17-2133/13 ‘Cognitive individual differences in non-human species’ from University of Padova
2009 PRIN 2009 n. 2009WZXKK7T ‘Numerical competences in animals’ from Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca (76.603 euro)
Grant proposals submitted
2018 PRIN from Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca (request: 150000 euro)
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
2015 Visiting Scholar at Department of Biomedial Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Canada (6 months)
2013 Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington, U.S. (2 months)
COLLABORATIONS
Prof. Douglas P. Chivers, Dep. of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
Prof. Maud C.O. Ferrari, Dep. of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
Prof. Adam Reddon, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, UK.
Prof. Kazuchika Manabe, College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University of Tokyo, Japan.
Prof. Nicholas Foulkes, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.
Prof. Felix Loosli, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.
Prof. Andrea Pilastro, Dep. of Biology, University of Padova, Italy.
Prof. Matteo Griggio, Dep. of Biology, University of Padova, Italy.
Prof. Angelo Bisazza, Dep. of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy.
Prof. Cristiano Bertolucci, Dep. of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Italy.
Dott. Matteo Marti, Dep. of Morphology, Experimental Medicine, and Surgery, University of Ferrara, Italy.
Prof. Marco Dadda, Dep. of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy.
Dott. Christian Agrillo, Dep. of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy.
Prof. Luisa Dalla Valle, Dep. of Biology, University of Padova, Italy.
Prof. Ike Olivotto, Dip. di Scienze della Vita e dell’Ambiente, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy.
Prof. Monia Perugini, Faculty of Bioscience and Agro-Food and Environmental Technology
University of Teramo, Italy.
CONFERENCES & SEMINARS
Chair
1 – 4 Sep 2019 8th Congress of Italian Society of Evolutionary Biology, Padova, Italy: symposium ‘Social behaviour: ecology and evolution’.
Talks in conferences (9)
18 – 22 Sep 2019 XXVIII Conference of Italian Society of Ethology, Firenze, Italy: ‘Cognitive flexibility in male and female guppies’.
18 – 22 Sep 2017 Second Joint Meeting of Société Zoologique de France and Unione Zoologica Italiana, Torino, Italy: ‘Individual differences in exploratory behaviour predict novel male preference in female guppies (Poecilia reticulata, Peters, 1859)’
18 – 21 June 2017 XXVII Conference of Italian Society of Ethology, Calci, Italy: ‘Chemical alarm cues mediate antipredator behaviour and learning in zebrafish larvae’
2 – 3 Feb 2017 1° Zebrafish Italian Meeting, Padova, Italy: ‘New paradigms for studying learning and memory in zebrafish’
12 – 15 Jul 2016 European Conference on Behavioural Biology, Wien, Austria: ‘Cognitive sex differences in the guppy, Poecilia reticulata’
25 – 26 Feb 2016 4° Behavioural Ecology Meeting, Chioggia, Italy: ‘Lateralizzazione e riconoscimento del predatore nei girini di Lithobates slyvaticus’
12 – 13 Feb 2015 3° Behavioural Ecology Meeting, Chioggia, Italy: ‘Individual differences in quantity discrimination by Poecilia reticulata’
2 – 5 Sep 2014 Conference of Poeciliid Biologist, Exeter, England: ‘Sex differences in cognitive abilities in guppies’
12 – 13 Dec 2013 2° Behavioural Ecology Meeting, Chioggia, Italy: ‘Sex differences in cognitive flexibility in guppies’
Posters in conferences (4)
30 Jul – 4 Aug 2017 Behaviour 2017, Estoril, Portugal: ‘Tree frogs discriminate between quantities of potential refuges’
18 – 21 Jun 2017 XXVII Convegno della Societa Italiana di Etologia, Calci, Italy: ‘Do ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) and guppies (Poecilia reticulata) perceive the Delboeuf illusion?’
12 – 15 Jul 2016 European Conference on Behavioural Biology, Wien, Austria: ‘Does method matter in fish cognition? Evidence from studies on numerical abilities’
17 – 20 Jul 2014 European Conference on Behavioural Biology, Prague, Czech Republic: ‘Sex differences in reversal learning in guppies’
Talks in conferences as co-author (4)
18 – 22 Sep 2019 XXVIII Conference of Italian Society of Ethology, Firenze, Italy: ‘Inhibitory control abilities in teleost fish’.
9 – 12 Aug 2018 European Conference on Behavioural Biology, Liverpool, U.K.: “Do animals see the Delboeuf illusion differently? A large-scale comparative assessment”
23 – 24 Feb 2018 Cognitive Science Arena 2018, Brixen, Italy: ‘Treefrogs discriminate number and size of potential refuges’
30 Jul – 4 Aug 2017 Behaviour 2017, Estoril, Portugal: ‘Familiarization leads to equitable and differentiated social relationships in the guppy’
25 – 26 Feb 2016 4° Behavioural Ecology Meeting, Chioggia, Italy: ‘Use of ordinal numerical information in Poecilia reticulata’
Invited seminars (11)
5 Sep 2018 Dep. of Environmental Sciences, University of Quèbec at Trois-Rivières, Canada: ‘Cognitive abilities of fish: from 3-second memory to intelligence’
21 Apr 2017 Laboratory of Sexual Selection, Dep. of Biology, University of Padova, Italy: ‘Inhibitory control in guppies’.
27 Feb 2017 Dep. Of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy: ‘The Coolidge effect: studying the evolution of sexual attraction to unfamiliar individuals using fish’.
2 Oct 2015 Laboratory of Sexual Selection, Dep. of Biology, University of Padova, Italy: ‘Embryonic plasticity of lateralization enhances predator-learning skills in risky environments’.
18 Aug 2015 Laboratory of Aquatic Predation and Enviromental Change, Dep. of Biomedical Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada: ‘About tadpoles, predation, and lateralization’.
2 Mar 2015 Dep. of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy: ‘Stima di quantità di cibo nel teleosteo Poecilia reticulata’ (Food quantity discrimination in Poecilia reticulata).
17 Nov 2014 Hydrobiological Station of Chioggia, Dep. of Biology, University of Padova, Chioggia, Italy: ‘Out-of-mind: when environmental stressors make fish go wrong’.
14 Mar 2014 Laboratory of Sexual Selection, Dep. of Biology, University of Padova, Italy: ‘Caratteri di life history e personalità animale: una stretta dipendenza?’.
9 Dec 2013 Dep. of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy: ‘Differenze sessuali nella flessibilità cognitiva e nel controllo inibitorio nel teleosteo Poecilia reticulata’ (Sex differences in cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control in Poecilia reticulata).
29 Apr 2013 Laboratory of Sexual Selection, Dep. of Biology, University of Padova, Italy: ‘Learning trade-offs in animal cognition’.
23 Mar 2013 Dep. of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy: ‘Effetti cognitivi della selezione sessuale in Poecilia reticulata’ (Cognitive effect of sexual selection in Poecilia reticulata).
PUBLICATIONS
47 peer-reviewed articles since 2014
A complete list of publications can be found at:
https://scholar.google.it/citations?hl=it&user=_Lcqx6QAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&authuser=1&sortby=pubdate
Top Young European Scientist
In 2017, recognised as one of the top 100 researches with <5 academic year in the field of Psychology.
http://www.topitalianscientists.org/TISReports/Top_Young_Scientists_in_UK_Germany_Italy_in_Psychology_with_academic_age_between_1_and_5.html
Media coverage
3 papers have been presented in online journals for scientific divulgation:
BBC Earth: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170426-why-fish-do-not-deserve-their-reputation-for-forgetfulness
Inside Science: https://www.insidescience.org/news/male-guppies-try-swim-through-walls-females-go-around
Science Trends: https://sciencetrends.com/treefrogs-use-quantity-discrimination-abilities-to-choose-among-microhabitats/
Statistics
Year of PhD award: 2016
Total number of publications: 47
Publications per year since PhD award: 16
Average Impact Factor of the published Journals: 2.6
Publications as first author: 34
Publications as corresponding author: 36
Publications as senior author: 2
Total number of citations: Google Scholar=666; Scopus=481; Web of Sciences=487
H-index: Google Scholar=16; Scopus=15; Web of Sciences=14
i10-index: Google Scholar=21
Advancement of knowledge
I conduct innovative studies on animal behaviour and cognition, with particular focus on how learning, memory and executive functions such as cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control vary within species in fish and amphibians. These studies have been published in key international journals of behaviour, including Anim Behav, Behav Ecol, Behav Brain Res, Behav Ecol Sociobiol, Anim Cogn, Ethology, and Behav Process, as well as in some notable general journals such as Biol Lett, Sci Nat, and Sci Rep.
During MSc, I worked on a an artificial selection project on a fish, the guppy, Poecilia reticulata, to understand how behaviour during mating (i.e. competition, courting and mate choice) explains the maintenance of variability on a sexual character important for reproduction in this species, sperm production (Cattelan et al. in prep.). Thereafter, during my PhD, I started focussing on cognitive aspects of animal behaviour, but I applied the behavioural-ecology approach based on the study of individual variation. My PhD’s experiments provided evidence that individual fish of the same species often show different cognitive abilities, especially individuals of the two sexes. For example, female guppies have greater learning flexibility than males (Lucon-Xiccato & Bisazza, 2014, Biol Lett; Lucon-Xiccato & Bisazza, 2017, Anim Behav; Miletto-Petrazzini, Bisazza, Agrillo, Lucon-Xiccato, 2017, Anim Cogn). Males, instead, show improved learning during spatial navigation compared to females (Lucon-Xiccato & Bisazza, 2017, Anim Behav). In many other tasks, I found evidence of substantial similarities between the cognitive abilities of males and females (Lucon-Xiccato & Bisazza, 2016, Anim Cogn), leading to the hypothesis that sex differences might have been selected only in particular contexts and under specific selective pressures. After PhD completion, I focussed on identifying more subtle intraspecific variability in cognition, i.e. differences between individuals irrespective of the sex. I investigated individual differences in a number of tasks including problem solving (Lucon-Xiccato, Gatto, & Bisazza, under review) and learning flexibility (Lucon-Xiccato, Bisazza, & Bertolucci, under review). To understand the causes of this variability, I explored direct and indirect sources of selection. For example, I showed that individual differences are present also in cognitive tasks directly related fitness, such as choosing foraging patches and evading predators (Lucon-Xiccato & Dadda 2017 Behav Ecol Sociobiol; Lucon-Xiccato et al. 2017 Behav Ecol). Moreover, I showed that part of the variation in cognition covaries, at the phenotypic level, with variation in behaviour (i.e., personality), which suggests that indirect selective forces might act on cognition (Lucon-Xiccato & Dadda 2017 Front Psychol; Lucon-Xiccato et al. 2020 Curr Zool). I reviewed these results and other results in “Individual differences in cognition among teleost fish” (Lucon-Xiccato & Bisazza 2017) in the issue ‘Fish Cognition’ in Behavioural Processes. A secondary output of my research was the development of novel paradigms to study cognition in fish. I published several papers with methodological advancements that are also highly interesting for scholars that use fish models in applied research (Lucon-Xiccato & Dadda 2014 Behav Proc; Lucon-Xiccato et al. 2017 Anim Cogn; Gatto et al. 2017 Anim Cogn; Lucon-Xiccato et al. 2018 Ethology; Lucon-Xiccato et al. 2020 Behav Brain Res; Lucon-Xiccato et al. 2020 J Neurosci Method).
Papers published/accepted
47. Bruzzone, M., Gatto, E., LUCON-XICCATO, T., Dalla Valle, L., Fontana, C. M., Meneghetti, G., & Bisazza, A. (2020). Measuring recognition memory in zebrafish larvae: issues and limitations. PeerJ accepted manuscript.
46. Santacà, M, LUCON-XICCATO, T., & Agrillo, C. (2020) The Delboeuf illusion’s bias in food choice of teleost fishes: an inter-specific study. Animal Behaviour, accepted manuscript.
45. LUCON-XICCATO, T., Crane, A., Ferrari, M. C. O., & Chivers, D. (2020). Exposure to predation risk reduces lateralization in fathead minnows. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, accepted manuscript.
44. LUCON-XICCATO, T., De Russi, G., & Bertolucci, C. (2020). A novel-odour exploration test for measuring anxiety in adult and larval zebrafish. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 335, 108619.
43. LUCON-XICCATO, T., Bisazza, A., & Bertolucci, C. (2020). Guppies show sex and individual differences in the ability to inhibit behaviour. Animal Cognition, doi: 10.1007/s10071-020-01357-4.
42. LUCON-XICCATO, T., Montalbano, G., & Bertolucci, C. (2020). Personality traits covary with individual differences in inhibitory abilities in 2 species of fish. Current Zoology, 66, 187-195.
41. LUCON-XICCATO, T., Gatto, E., & Bisazza, A. (2020). Male and female guppies differ in problem-solving abilities. Current Zoology, 66, 83-90.
40. LUCON-XICCATO, T., Di Mauro, G., Bisazza, A., & Bertolucci, C. (2020). Alarm cue-mediated response and learning in zebrafish larvae. Behavioural Brain Research, 380, 112446.
39. LUCON-XICCATO, T., Dadda, M., & Bisazza, A. (2019). Vegetation cover induces developmental plasticity of lateralisation in tadpoles. Current Zoology, doi: 10.1093/cz/zoz061.
38. LUCON-XICCATO, T., Bisazza, A., & Pilastro, A. (2019). Exploratory behaviour covaries with preference for unfamiliar males in female guppies. Animal Behaviour, 155, 217-224.
37. LUCON-XICCATO, T., Anastasia, N., Mazzoldi, C., & Griggio, M. (2019). Familiarity and sex modulate size-dependent following behaviour in the Mediterranean killifish. The Science of Nature, 106, 31.
36. Santacà, M., Busatta, M., LUCON-XICCATO, T., & Bisazza, A. (2019). Sensory differences mediate species variation in detour task performance. Animal Behaviour, 155, 153-162.
35. LUCON-XICCATO, T., & Bertolucci, C. (2019). Guppies show rapid and lasting inhibition of foraging behaviour. Behavioural Processes, 164, 91-99.
34. LUCON‐XICCATO, T. (2019). Tadpoles modulate antipredator responses according to the abundance of vegetation experienced during the embryonic stage. Journal of Zoology, 308, 259-265.
33. LUCON-XICCATO, T. (2019). Chemical alarm cues allow prey to adjust their defensive behaviour to cover abundance. Behavioural Processes, 162, 86-89.
32. Santacà M., Busatta M., Savaşçı B. B., LUCON-XICCATO T., Bisazza A. (2019) The effect of experience and olfactory cue in an inhibitory control task in guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Animal Behaviour, 151, 1-7.
31. LUCON-XICCATO T., Santacà M., Miletto Petrazzini M. E., Agrillo C., Dadda M. (2019) Guppies, Poecilia reticulata, perceive a reversed Delboeuf illusion. Animal Cognition, 22, 291-303.
30. LUCON‐XICCATO T., Manabe K., Bisazza A. (2019) Guppies learn faster to discriminate between red and yellow than between two shapes. Ethology, 125, 82-91.
29. Cattelan S., LUCON-XICCATO T., Pilastro A. Griggio M. (2019) Familiarity mediates equitable social associations in guppies. Behavioral Ecology, 30, 249-255.
28. Gatto E., LUCON-XICCATO T., Bisazza A. (2018) Factors affecting the measure of inhibitory control in a fish (Poecilia reticulata). Behavioural Processes, 157, 11-17.
27. LUCON-XICCATO T., Ferrari M. C. O, Chivers D. P., Bisazza A. (2018) Odour recognition learning of multiple predators by amphibian larvae. Animal Behaviour, 140, 199-205.
26. LUCON-XICCATO T., Gatto E., Bisazza A. (2018) Quantity discrimination by treefrogs. Animal Behaviour, 139, 61-69.
25. LUCON-XICCATO T., Gatto E., Bisazza A. (2017) Fish perform like mammals and birds in inhibitory control tasks. Scientific Reports, 7, 13144.
24. Miletto Petrazzini M.E., Agrillo C., Bisazza A., LUCON XICCATO T. (2017) Sex differences in discrimination reversal learning in the guppy. Animal Cognition, 20, 1081-1091.
23. LUCON-XICCATO T., Dadda M. (2017) Personality and cognition: sociability negatively predicts shoal size discrimination performance in guppies. Frontiers in Comparative Psychology, 8, 1118.
22. LUCON-XICCATO T., Griggio M. (2017) Shoal sex composition affects exploration in the Mediterranean killifish. Ethology, 123, 818-824.
21. LUCON-XICCATO T., Mazzoldi C., & Griggio M. (2017). Sex composition modulates the effects of familiarity in new environment. Behavioural Processes, 140, 133-138.
20. Cattelan S., LUCON-XICCATO T., Pilastro A., Griggio M. (2017) Is the mirror test a valid measure of fish sociability? Animal Behaviour, 127, 109-116.
19. LUCON-XICCATO T., Bisazza A. (2017). Individual differences in cognition among teleost fishes. Behavioural Processes, 141, 184-195.
18. LUCON-XICCATO T., Bisazza A. (2017). Complex maze learning by fish. Animal Behaviour, 125, 69-75.
17. LUCON-XICCATO T., Dadda M., Gatto E., Bisazza A. (2017). Development and testing of a rapid method for measuring shoal size discrimination. Animal Cognition, 20, 149-157.
16. LUCON-XICCATO T., Bisazza A. (2017). Sex differences in spatial abilities and cognitive flexibility in the guppy. Animal Behaviour, 123, 53-60.
15. LUCON XICCATO T., Dadda M. (2017). Individual guppies differ in quantity discrimination performance across antipredator and foraging contexts. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 71, 13.
14. Gatto E., LUCON-XICCATO T., Savaşçı B. B., Dadda M., Bisazza A. (2017). Experimental setting affects the performance of guppies in a numerical discrimination task. Animal Cognition, 20, 187-198.
13. LUCON-XICCATO T., Chivers D. P., Mitchell M. D., Ferrari M. C. O. (2017). Prenatal exposure to predation affects predator recognition learning via lateralization plasticity. Behavioral Ecology, 28, 253-259.
12. LUCON-XICCATO T., Chivers D. P., Mitchell M. D., Ferrari M. C. O. (2016) Making the dead talk: alarm cue-mediated antipredator behaviour and learning are enhanced when injured conspecifics experience high predation risk. Biology Letters, 12, 20160560.
11. Chivers D. P., Mitchell M. D., LUCON-XICCATO T., Brown G. E., Ferrari M. C. O. (2016). Background risk influences learning but not generalization of predators. Animal Behaviour, 121, 733-744.
10. Mitchell M. D., Ferrari M. C. O., LUCON-XICCATO T., Chivers D. P. (2016). Diet cues alter the development of predator recognition templates in tadpoles. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 70, 1707-1713.
9. LUCON-XICCATO T., Dadda M. (2016). Guppies show behavioural but not cognitive sex differences in a novel object recognition task. PLoS ONE, 11, e0156589.
8. LUCON-XICCATO T., Dadda M., Bisazza A. (2016). Sex differences in discrimination of shoal size in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). Ethology, 122, 481-491.
7. LUCON-XICCATO T., Bisazza A. (2016). Male and female guppies differ in speed but not in accuracy in visual discrimination learning. Animal Cognition, 19, 733-744.
6. LUCON-XICCATO T., Miletto Petrazzini M. E., Agrillo C., Bisazza A. (2015). Guppies discriminate between two quantities of food items but prioritize item size over total amount. Animal Behaviour, 107, 183-191.
5. Miletto Petrazzini M. E., LUCON-XICCATO T., Agrillo C., Bisazza A. (2015). Use of ordinal information by fish. Scientific Reports, 5, 15497.
4. LUCON-XICCATO T., Nati J. H. J., Blasco F. R., Johansen L. J., Steffensen F. J., Domenici P. (2014). Severe hypoxia impairs lateralization in a marine teleost fish. Journal of Experimental Biology, 217, 4115-4118.
3. LUCON-XICCATO T., Bisazza A. (2014). Discrimination reversal learning reveals greater female behavioural flexibility in guppies. Biology Letters, 10, 20140206.
2. Bisazza A., Agrillo C., LUCON-XICCATO T. (2014). Extensive training extends numerical abilities of guppies. Animal Cognition, 17, 1413-1419.
1. LUCON-XICCATO T., Dadda M. (2014). Assessing memory in zebrafish using the one-trial test. Behavioural Processes, 106, 1-4.
DIDACTIC
Teaching
2018-present ‘Animal Biology’, Bachelor’s in Biotechnology, University of Ferrara (50 h: 40 h lecture + 10 h lab; ~100 students)
2018-present ‘Applied Ethology’ MS in Environmental Biotechnology, University of Ferrara (48 h; ~20 students)
2017 ‘Psychobiology’ Bachelor’s in Cognitive and Psychobiological Sciences (20 h; students)
2016 ‘Animal Psychology’, Bachelor’s in Psychological Sciences (10 h; language: English; students)
Supervising and mentoring
Supervised and co-supervised more than 70 BCs and MCs students in Psychological and Biological Sciences.
Didactic seminars, laboratories, and profit exams
2013 – 2019 Preparation and participation at the profit exams of the following courses: ‘Psychobiology, Bachelor in Psychological Sciences and Techniques, University of Padova, Prof. A. Bisazza; ‘Animal and Comparative Psychology’, Bachelor in Cognitive Psychological and Psychobiological Sciences, University of Padova, Prof. A. Bisazza; ‘Psicobiologia’, Bachelor in Cognitive Psychological and Psychobiological Sciences, University of Padova, Prof. M. Dadda; ‘Animal Psychology’, Bachelor in Psychological Science, University of Padova, Prof. M. Dadda; ‘Zoology’, Bachelor in Biological Sciences, University of Ferrara, Prof. C. Bertolucci.
29 Nov 2018 Seminar: ‘Animal Behaviour and Cognition’ (4 h), Zoology, Bachelors in Biological Sciences, University of Ferrara.
23 May 2018 Seminar: ‘Individual differences in animal cognition’ (2 h), Ethology, MS in Evolutionary and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Ferrara.
9 Apr 2018 Seminar: ‘Individual differences in animal behaviour’ (2 h), Ethology, MS in Evolutionary and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Ferrara.
2014-16 Lab assistant at the ‘Practical Course Animal Behaviour’, a unit of Biodiversity and Behaviour for the Master in Marine Biology at University of Padova (language: English). This is the first practical animal behaviour laboratory in Italy, of which I was one of the two organizers.
15 Mar 2016 Seminar: ‘Cognitive sex differences in non- human animals’ (2 h, language: English), Psychobiology, Bachelors in Psychological and Social Sciences, University of Padova.
2 Dec 2015 Seminar: ‘Individual differences in animal behaviour and cognition’ (2 h), Comparative and Animal Psychology, Bachelors in Cognitive Psychological and Psychobiological Sciences, University of Padova.
3 Dec 2014 Seminar: ‘Animal Cognition: Variation within species’ (1 h), Comparative and Animal Psychology, Bachelors in Cognitive Psychological and Psychobiological Sciences, University of Padova.
18 Nov 2014 Seminar: ‘Individual differences in animal behaviour and cognition’ (1 h), Comparative and Animal Psychology, Bachelors in Cognitive Psychological and Psychobiological Sciences, University of Padova.
4 Nov 2013 Seminar: ‘Individual differences in behaviour and cognition’ (1 h), Comparative and Animal Psychology, Bachelors in Cognitive Psychological and Psychobiological Sciences, University of Padova.
SERVICE
2018-present Member of the PhD School Council in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology at University of Ferrara.
2019-2021 Evaluator for the PhD School in Evolutionary Biology at University of Padova.
2019 Evaluation of thesis, PhD program in Biomedical Sciences and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia.
2018 ‘Outstanding reviewer’ (top 10th percentile) for Animal Behaviour.
2013-2019 Peer-reviewer of 89 manuscripts for the following international journals:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B; Scientific Reports; Animal Behaviour; Animal Cognition; Behavioral Processes; Behaviour; Journal of Fish Biology; Journal of Comparative Neurology; Royal Society Interface; Evolutionary Ecology Research; PLoS One; Ethology Ecology and Evolution; Journal of Ethology; Current Zoology; PeerJ; Royal Society Open Science; Environmental Biology of Fishes.
