Jessica Yorzinski

Jessica Yorzinski is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University's College of Agriculture & Life Sciences. Her research focuses on animal behavior, visual perception, and predator-prey interactions, with particular emphasis on avian cognition and microbiome ecology. She leads the Yorzinski Lab (https://yorzinskilab.org), exploring topics such as eye tracking in nonhuman primates, microbiome dynamics in captive and wild birds, and the role of dopamine in avian behavior.

Education: B.S. Neurobiology and Behavior (Cornell University), M.S. and Ph.D. in Animal Behavior (University of California-Davis). Her work spans disciplines including behavioral ecology, neuroscience, and conservation biology.

Research highlights include studies on predator gaze perception in humans and chimpanzees, effects of captivity on gut microbiomes, and the influence of reward history on visual attention in birds. Her lab employs interdisciplinary methods, combining field observations, lab experiments, and computational modeling.

Recent publications emphasize avian behavior under artificial lighting, microbial symbiosis in songbirds, and primate visual perception mechanisms. She collaborates with institutions like Texas A&M AgriLife Research and AgriLife Extension.