Generate a tailored SOP for Dr. Christina Riehl. Improve your application with a focused, well-structured draft.
Christina Riehl's research focuses on evolution and social behavior, particularly the evolution of cooperative breeding in birds. She employs a combination of behavioral observations, molecular genotyping, and field experiments to determine the reproductive fitness of individuals in cooperatively breeding groups. Her interests include brood parasitic life-history tactics and the co-evolution of behaviors between avian brood parasites and their hosts. Her research is primarily centered in the Neotropics, with field sites in Colombia and Panama, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Recent projects in her lab have addressed questions such as: How does cooperation evolve among unrelated individuals? What stabilizes cooperative interactions when kin selection is absent? How do group members punish or enforce cooperation within animal groups? How do collective decisions emerge in these groups? How do members synchronize shared activities and resolve conflicts when fitness interests of group members may not align? What selective pressures and constraints have shaped the evolution of kin recognition in birds? Have avian brood parasites and their hosts co-evolved? What are the evolutionary dynamics behind the independent origins of brood parasitism?
GRE scores are not accepted. Ph.D. is the primary degree; students are not required to hold an M.S.E. prior to admission.