Kate Laskowski

Kate Laskowski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology at University of California, Davis, focusing on behavioral diversity and plasticity. Her research explores how evolutionary processes shape developmental mechanisms generating individual variation.

• Education: B.S. in Biological Sciences (2006, UMBC), Ph.D. in Integrative Biology (2013, University of Illinois)

Her work integrates ultimate and proximate perspectives to analyze how genetic, parental, and experiential cues build phenotypes. Recent research emphasizes clonal fish models to study non-genetic origins of behavior, eco-evolutionary dynamics, and collective behavior across scales.

Publications from 2023-2025 highlight themes in behavioral repeatability, predation risk responses, genetic life-history trade-offs, and social conformity vs. individuality. Her methods combine experimental studies with statistical modeling and meta-analytic frameworks.

• Scientific Awards: Sloan Fellow (2023)

Kate collaborates with the Center for Population Biology and advises in the Animal Behavior and Population Biology graduate programs. Her lab investigates behavioral individuality in clonal systems, with applications to conservation and evolutionary theory.