Biography

I am a cognitive neuroscientist working at the intersection of animal behaviour, neuroscience, and bio-inspired engineering. My research explores how miniature brains achieve remarkably sophisticated cognitive abilities, with a particular focus on visual cognition in bees. By combining behavioural experiments, computational modelling, and advanced imaging techniques, I investigate how efficient biological systems can inform both fundamental neuroscience and the development of autonomous artificial systems.

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My academic journey began in behavioural ecology before I transitioned into neuroscience. During an early research period in Chile, I studied neurogenesis in honeybee queens, an experience that shaped my interest in brain plasticity and provided me with strong training in molecular and cellular biology. I later pursued master’s degrees specialising in neuroscience, behaviour, cognition, and sensory processing.

My early research focused on gustatory and olfactory perception in honeybees. I contributed to the development of innovative conditioning paradigms that revealed unexpected complexities and limitations in bee sensory systems. This work strengthened my fascination with how small nervous systems encode, process, and adapt to environmental information.

 

I completed my PhD at Queen Mary University of London under the supervision of Lars Chittka. My doctoral research examined active vision and pattern recognition in bees, where I pioneered the analysis of fine-scale flight trajectories to understand how movement structures visual perception. This work led me to develop a lasting interest in embodied cognition — the idea that intelligence emerges from the continuous interaction between brain, body, and environment.

 

Following my PhD, I expanded my interdisciplinary expertise through postdoctoral research in Sweden and Australia. At Stockholm University, I investigated how environmental stressors, such as developmental temperature, influence brain organisation, eye morphology, and behaviour in bumblebees, integrating morphometrics and micro-CT imaging. At Macquarie University, I deepened my research on active vision, comparative cognition, and neural modelling, while supervising students and contributing to collaborative projects bridging biology and artificial intelligence.