In a world where trust in science is rapidly evaporating, scientists have the duty, more than ever before, to make our science reliable, robust, and accessible (conceptually and financially) to the public. Unfortunately, access to reading and doing science today is grossly unequal among aspirant scientists due to their regional, cultural, and economical backgrounds. In my career, I aim to show that quality rigorous and impactful animal behaviour research can be done at low costs, specifically considering the rising costs of, and demand for, computational resources.

I am committed to free, open, and replicable science and to the emergence of a supportive academic system. As such, I follow these self-imposed commandments in my research:

Coding

1. All code used in my research will always be publicly available with my papers.
2. As far as I can help it, my code will only use free and open source dependencies.
3. I will strive to write readable code that will run on ordinary computers.

Publishing

4. My code will always be reviewed by another person before submission of papers.
5. Every paper I publish will first be available as a pre-print, as far as possible.

Mentorship

6. I will commit to equal opportunities and equitable support in big and small circumstances.
7. I commit to representing my mentees and 'having their backs' whenever they need me.

Access

8. To the extent possible, I will ensure that my science is self-communicating to the public.

Animals constantly switch between behavioural states, and the dynamics of behavioural state switching is very non-random. How exactly do animals in the wild make behavioural decisions? What set of principles guide when behavioural transitions occur?

Broadening out further, people who have spent time with animals in the wild know well that groups of animals can have states of their own---for instance, animal groups can switch from foraging in one place to all animals moving towards some destination. Are there group behavioural states? How do they come about from individual movement and behaviour decisions? What principles structure the behavioural sequences of groups?

How do different species of animals have such widely varied grouping patterns? Can one model of animal interaction explain multiple types of social structures? What impact does reasoning have on the formation of groups?

These are some of the broad questions I ask in my research. To read more, you can head to the research section.

Outside of science, I like to dabble in a variety of interests. I love reading really old classic books and papers in various fields, to get a picture of science and society decades (or sometimes centuries) ago. I really like developing new skills, for instace I learned HTML and CSS by hard-coding this website. I also write fiction and poetry, create useful and interesting bits of code, cool visualisations, and a lot of satire.

My postdoc is funded by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the IMPRS-QBEE.

Earlier, I received support from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) during my PhD, and was supported by a fellowship from the erstwhile Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana during my Bachelor's and Master's.