Lisa O'Bryan

Lisa O'Bryan is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University. She holds a Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from the University of Minnesota (2015) and a B.S. in Zoology from Texas A&M University (2008). Her research focuses on understanding communication mechanisms underlying collective social behaviors in both human and non-human species, leveraging computational models and machine learning. She has pioneered the use of wearable dataloggers and audio-visual recording technologies to study animal groups and human teams.

Dr. O’Bryan’s interdisciplinary work bridges engineering, biology, and social sciences. Her current research investigates vocal turn-taking in human teams and vocal coordination in animal groups. She has received prestigious fellowships, including the James S. McDonnell Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015) and the Rice Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2018). Her long-term goals include applying insights from collective behavior to improve human collaboration, aid wildlife conservation, and inform artificial intelligence design.

• Research Highlights:
  • Developed novel methodologies for analyzing collective intelligence in human teams
  • Discovered goats use copying rather than voting to coordinate movement
  • Explored communication networks in baboons and chimpanzees

Her work has been featured in Nature Magazine and she frequently collaborates across disciplines, integrating engineering tools with ecological and behavioral studies.