Barbara Class

Dr. Barbara Class is a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Biology at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, specializing in Behavioral Ecology. Her work focuses on understanding how social behavior, individual differences, and environmental factors shape animal interactions and fitness. She leads research in the Behavioural Ecology work group, investigating topics such as urbanization impacts on behavior, disease effects on social networks, and evolutionary mechanisms driving behavioral traits.

Education and Research Interests: Barbara’s research integrates field observations, statistical modeling, and genomics to address questions in behavioral ecology. Key themes include:

• Social behavior mechanisms in reptiles and birds
• Evolutionary consequences of assortative mating
• Behavioral responses to urbanization
• Pathogen transmission dynamics in wildlife populations

Articles Trends: Her recent work emphasizes urban adaptation in reptiles, disease impacts on social networks, and statistical rigor in ecological studies. Notable contributions include disentangling non-random social assortment and exploring behavioral divergence along urbanization gradients.

Labs and Teams: Barbara’s research is anchored in the Behavioural Ecology group, collaborating with international teams on projects combining field experiments and genomic approaches.