Dr. Aaron Blaisdell is a UCLA Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience where he directs the Comparative Cognition Lab. Dr. Blaisdell is a member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute, the UCLA Integrative Center for Learning & Memory, and the UCLA Evolutionary Medicine program. He received a BA in Anthropology (SUNY Stony Brook), an MS in Anthropology (Kent State University), a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience (SUNY Binghamton), and had 2 years of postdoctoral training (Tufts University). His interests include animal cognition and behavior, ancestral health, and arts and science fiction. His work addresses research questions at the interface between associative and cognitive processes. Dr. Blaisdell is the primary investigator of the Pigeon Art Project.

Cyrus is a graduate student in Behavioral Neuroscience at UCLA. His research interests include behavioral economics and comparative cognition (especially extensions into plant behavior). Cyrus has recently been enticed by the experimental and analytical potential of computational thinking, and has been learning to apply computer science across the various facets of behavioral science. These projects have included teaching pigeons to play Pac-Man and generate artwork. Cyrus works to make the software and hardware behind our pigeon art completely open source in order to enable future collaborations and extensions across labs and species.

Cameron is an undergraduate research assistant with a dynamic professional with a rich blend of experiences. He has a keen eye for design, capturing extrodinary footage of our artists in action. More importantly, Cameron leads the technical analysis of the pigeon art project. He is adept at conventional statistical modeling as well as machine learning techniques to illuminate the scientific questions at the heart of our project.