Adam Miklosi, PhD, DSc

Adam Miklósi is a full professor and the leader of the Department of Ethology at the Eötvös University in Budapest (Hungary). He is also the co-founder and leader of the Family Dog Project (http://familydogproject.elte.hu) which aims to study human-dog interaction from an ethological perspective. Due to the process of domestication dogs evolved a unique relationship with humans because they had gained skills which allow specific behavioral adjustments in the human social environment. Miklósi and his collaborators showed that dogs develop specific attachment relationship with their owners, dogs are able to communicate with humans using a range of fine-tuned visual and acoustic signals, and dogs are also able to learn via observation and utilize such knowledge for their own benefit. In recent years he became interested also in the automatization of measuring dog behavior and his research group is looking at ways to study the neural and genetic aspects of dog behavior using non-invasive methods like fMRI and EEG. In 2008 he got involved in human-robot interaction research, and soon became interested in studying dog-robot interaction as a new method to understand the functioning of dogs’ mind.

Over more than twenty years The Family Dog Project published more than 150 scientific papers, and organized several conferences. In 2008 researchers and experts gathered for the first time in Budapest, and started the conferences series of Canine Science Forum (http://csf2008.elte.hu) to share their results and insights on dogs and their relationship with humans.

In 2014 he published the second edition of an academic volume entitled Dog Behavior, Evolution and Cognition by Oxford University Press that summarizes the most recent status on dog oriented research. 

Jessica Hekman , DVM, PhD

Jessica Hekman, DVM, PhD is a postdoctoral associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Jessica received her Ph.D. in Animal Sciences (Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics) in 2017 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she studied canid behavioral genetics. Previously, Jessica graduated from the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 2012 with a dual DVM/MS degree. Her Master's work was on the behavior and cortisol responses of healthy dogs to being hospitalized overnight. She also completed a shelter medicine veterinary internship at the University of Florida Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program. Jessica's interests include the genetics of canine behavior. Jessica lives with her husband and two dogs, with whom she participates in agility and canine parkour.

Kristopher Irizarry, PhD

Dr. Kristopher Irizarry received his PH.D. from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UCLA where he developed computational methods to identify functionally relevant genetic variations in the human genome. After completing his doctoral work, he accepted a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Neuropsychiatric Institute in the College of Medicine at UCLA and focused his efforts on identifying specific genetic variants that were associated with susceptibility to depression, in an attempt to develop genetic diagnostics that could be used to predict patient response to antidepressant treatments. His work led to the identification of specific genomic regions that predicted clinical patterns of anxiety and depression. The results of that work were ultimately patented by the University.

Afterward, he accepted a genetics faculty position at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Western University of Health Sciences where he is the Director of the Applied Genomic Center, which studies comparative mammalian genomics with an emphasis on decoding the behavioral and anatomical information encoded in animal genomes. In 2009, his research expanded when Dr. Irizarry and a team of colleagues were awarded funding to sequence the genome of the endangered Snow Leopard. 

Elinor Karlsson , PhD

Claire Wade, PhD

Claire Wade began her career in quantitative genetics before making the leap to genomics in 2002 when she began a position with the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The genomics group at the Whitehead later became one of the founding groups of what is now the Broad Institute. While in the USA, Claire worked on several mammalian genome projects including the mouse, dog, and horse (for which she was the lead researcher).

Claire’s research interests include unraveling the secrets of genome biology using next-generation sequencing. In particular, she studies the application of new genomic technologies to improve our understanding of diseases and behavioral traits in domestic animals and wildlife and our understanding of the links between DNA and phenotype in general. 

Projects currently underway are as diverse as studying the genetics of durability in thoroughbred racehorses, finding genes underlying canine separation anxiety and working dog performance, improving captive animal management using new genetic resources, and better understanding the genomics of behavior. Other projects involve mapping genes causing congenital disorders in dogs including cleft palate and deafness using whole genome association analysis and genotyping by sequencing.

Kelly Ballantyne, DVM, DACVB

Dr. Kelly Ballantyne graduated from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in 2005. She started her career as a primary care veterinarian in the Chicago suburbs before joining the University of Illinois’ satellite veterinary practice in Chicago in 2009. She is board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists and is a clinical assistant professor at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. In addition to consulting on behavioral illnesses in dogs and cats, her research interests focus on the human-animal bond and how having a pet with behavior problems impacts an owner’s life.

Julie Hecht, MSc

Julie Hecht has conducted dog behavior and cognition research with the Family Dog Project at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and at the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College in NYC. She is a PhD candidate in Animal Behavior and Comparative Psychology at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and she holds a Masters in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare from the University of Edinburgh. Hecht has taught Masters students at the Animal Behavior and Conservation program at Hunter College and at the Anthrozoology program at Canisius College, and she is frequently asked to weigh in on dog topics of the day. She writes the Dog Spies blog on Scientific American, and along with Mia Cobb, she co-founded the canine science and welfare platform Do You Believe in Dog? (Facebook, Twitter). They’ve been up and running since 2012, and this is their third time acting as science hosts for the SPARCS conference! DogSpies.com  

Mia Cobb, BSc(Hons)

Mia Cobb enjoys a diverse career as canine welfare researcher, consultant to industry, science communicator and educator. She has a unique combination of on-the-ground industry experience from over a decade working in animal shelter and working dog facilities, teamed with a keen enthusiasm for learning and sharing evidence-based best practice. Cobb has taught Psychology of Human-Animal Interactions at La Trobe University, Communicating Science at Deakin University and conducts public seminars and workplace training as a founding member of the People and Animals in the Workplace collaborative. She is in the final stages completing a PhD researching the welfare, stress and work performance of kenneled working dogs. Mia believes in helping scientific research escape academic journals, which has led to co-hosting the anthrozoology podcast, Human Animal Science and establishing the popular canine science platform, Do You Believe in Dog? (Facebook, Twitter) with co-founder Julie Hecht in 2012. They are excited to be back for their third time acting as science hosts for #SPARCS18