Vivian Goerlich

Dr. Vivian Goerlich is an Assistant Professor in Animal Behaviour at the Department of Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University. She works within the Division of Animals in Science & Society (AISS), where she focuses on the connection between animal behavior, physiology, and welfare. Her work spans multiple species from pigeons and chickens to cows, dogs, and giraffes, with particular emphasis on how early life experiences shape animal development and welfare.

Dr. Goerlich's research explores how animals adapt to environmental challenges, with special interest in prenatal and early postnatal effects on development. Her work examines how maternal hormones in eggs affect chick development, how external factors during incubation influence developing embryos, and how these early experiences create long-lasting changes in physiology and behavior that can even be transmitted across generations through epigenetic mechanisms. Her research integrates laboratory and field approaches, including endocrinology, behavioral observations, and physiological measurements.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong focus on poultry welfare, particularly examining how light exposure during incubation affects behavioral and physiological development in chickens. She also investigates broader animal welfare concepts, developing frameworks for welfare assessment across species with different phylogenetic distances from humans. Her work demonstrates consistent integration of behavioral, physiological, and endocrine approaches to understand animal welfare comprehensively.

Dr. Goerlich plays significant educational roles as Coordinator of the Master track 'Animal Welfare Management' & Risk Assessment and the FELASA Laboratory Animal Course module for 'Poultry and other birds.' She teaches physiology, animal behavior and welfare, animal communication, and systematic reviews within the Veterinary Medicine Master's program. She serves on the Master Education Research Committee (DGK) and is a board member of the Dutch Society for Behavioural Biology.

Her laboratory work spans multiple environments including controlled laboratory settings for endocrine analysis, field studies with various animal species, and citizen science projects like 'Pigeons in the City' that engage school children in life sciences research. She collaborates internationally with researchers across Europe and has previously worked at institutions including Duke University, University of Bielefeld, and University of Linköping.