Department of Evolutionary Anthropology
Director: Dr. Brian Hare
Brian Hare is an associate professor in Evolutionary Anthropology and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience (part of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences). He founded the Hominoid Psychology Research Group in 2004, and arrived at Duke in 2008. In 2009, Dr. Hare started the Duke Canine Cognition Center which is dedicated to the study of dog psychology and the effect of domestication on cognition.
Co director of Duke Canine Cognition Center: Margaret Gruen
Margaret Gruen is the co-director of the Duke Canine Cognition Center, and is an Assistant Professor of Behavioral Medicine at North Carolina State University. Dr Gruen has a Masters in Veterinary Public Health, a PhD in veterinary behavior, and is a board-certified veterinary behaviorist. Dr. Gruen has partnered with Duke since 2017, and together with Dr. Brian Hare, founded the Duke Puppy Kindergarten. Amongst many research interests, Dr Gruen is studying the physiology and development of puppies.
Director of Duke Puppy Kindergarten - Vanessa Woods
Vanessa Woods is the Director of the Duke Puppy Kindergarten, an NIH funded project to help increase the success of service dogs. Vanessa is also a writer and journalist and has co-authored Survival of the Friendliest and the New York Times Bestseller, The Genius of Dogs.
Lab coordinator: Gabby Bunnell
Gabby is the current lab coordinator of the Hare Lab. She graduated from Duke undergrad in Spring of 2021, completing her thesis with the Hare Lab on conservation attitudes and behaviors regarding bottlenose dolphins. She is broadly interested in conservation psychology - why people care about protecting our environment and specifically endangered animals - as well as puppy cognition, of course!
Graduate Students
Wen Zhou
Wen is a doctoral student in the Hare Group, and she is broadly interested in irrational human behaviors. She investigates questions regarding the irrationality from perspectives of evolution and ontogeny. Currently, Wen is working on exploring stereotypes and dehumanization toward doctors.
Hannah Salomons
Hannah is a doctoral student in the Hare Group. Before coming to Duke, she worked at the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys. Her interests include social cognition, conservation psychology and education, and animal welfare in research settings.
Gabriela (Gabi) X. Venable
Gabi is a doctoral student in the Hare group. Previously she studied avian ecology and cognition. She is broadly interested in investigating general trends in cognitive evolution and in facilitating the use of phylogenetic comparative methods in comparative psychology research.
Morgan Ferrans
Morgan Ferrans is a doctoral student from Baltimore, Maryland. Morgan is interested in studying canine physiology, temperament, and social behavior longitudinally. She hopes to apply this work to inform selection and training for assistance/service dog programs in order to increase outcomes for working dogs.
Hare Lab Alumni
Post-Docs
Dr. Margaret Gruen ('16-'18)
Assistant Professor, NC State College of Veterinary Medicine. Margaret Gruen is a veterinarian, and board-certified in Veterinary Behavior through the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists. She have spent the past several years at North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, and recently completed her PhD in Comparative Biomedical Sciences with a project focused on quantifying and qualifying chronic pain in cats with naturally-occurring degenerative joint disease. As co-director of the Duke Canine Cognition Center, she studied dog cognition and people's perceptions of dogs.
Ph.D. Students
Dr. Christopher Krupenye (Class of '16)
Postdoctoral Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Chris researches developmental and comparative psychology with a special interest in the theory of mind in great apes and other primates.
Dr. Evan MacLean (Class of '12)
Assistant Professor at University of Arizona. Evan was also a former postdoctoral fellow and co-director of the Duke Canine Cognition Center. He continues his work investigating what makes the human mind unique, and broader evolutionary questions regarding the proximate mechanisms and functional significance of cognition.
Dr. Alexandra Rosati (Class of '12)
Assistant Professor at University of Michigan. Alex's research focuses on how ecology shapes behavioral strategies and psychological abilities in primates, including lemurs, chimpanzees and bonobos.
Lab Managers
Kyle Smith (Class of '16, Lab Manager '17-'19)
Graduate Student at the Pennsylvania State University with Drs. Doug Bird and Rebecca Bliege Bird. Kyle is interested in studying the relationship between Aboriginal Australians and the environment, especially related to the domestication of dingoes.
James Brooks (Class of '17, Lab Manager '17)
Graduate student at Kyoto University with Shinya Yamamoto. For his thesis, James used camera trap data from around North Carolina to study how coyote behavior changes in wild vs. suburban settings, and whether coyotes are in the process of self-domesticating. He continued working for the Hare Lab for a few months after graduating, and he is now in graduate school in Japan.
Ben Allen (Class of '16, Lab Manager '16-'17)
Law student at Vermont Law School. Ben worked with different adult dog populations as an undergraduate with the lab. For his thesis, titled "Comparison of temperament and social cognition in juvenile dogs and wolves", Ben studied the differences between dog and wolf puppies. After graduating, Ben worked as the lab coordinator in the Hare Lab for one year before moving to D.C. to work with Population Connection and then attending law school.
Kerri Rodriguez (Class of '13, Lab Manager '13-'15)
Graduate Student at Purdue University. Kerri was one of the first and foremost experimentalists at the DCCC, developing and implementing our cognitive testing battery on dogs and captive wolves alike. Her research now focuses on the psychosocial effects of service dogs for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
Kate Almon (Lab Manager '14-'15)
Guide Dogs for the Blind. Kate is now a Guide Dog Mobility Instructor, applying her experiences and knowledge of dog cognition to help train wonderful service dogs.
Sophia Laderman (Lab Manager '13-'14)
Data Analyst for State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. Sophie applied her background in psychology and marine science to cognition research with dogs. She worked with pet, military, and service dogs alike.
Rachna Reddy (Class of '12, Lab Manager '12-'13)
Graduate Student at University of Michigan with Dr. John Mitani. Rachna's research focuses on cognition and social relationships in primates, and she completed a senior thesis called, "Do red ruffed lemurs yawn contagiously?" She also worked with pet dogs who visited the DCCC for testing.
Alyxandra Reinhardt (Lab Manager '12-'14)
Veterinary Student at North Carolina State University. Alyx played an essential role in developing the Dog Cognition Test Battery while working with military, service, and pet dogs.
Judy Songrady (Lab Manager '12-'13)
Veterinary Student at Szent István University. In addition to helping with military and pet dog projects, Judy was interested in bonobos and great ape conservation.
Kara Leimberger (Class of '11, Lab Manager '12-'13)
Graduate Student at University of Texas at Austin with Dr. Rebecca Lewis. Her research interests broadly include cooperation, group coordination, and social cognition. Given that most primates face uncertain futures, she is also very involved with conservation and science outreach.
Thesis Students
Sam Honig (Class of '18)
Sam studied how service dogs can be used to make pediatric echocardiograms less distressing for children and what the effects are on the dogs. He is planning on going to medical school.
James Brooks (Class of '17)
Graduate student at Kyoto University with Shinya Yamamoto. For his thesis, James used camera trap data from around North Carolina to study how coyote behavior changes in wild vs. suburban settings, and whether coyotes are in the process of self-domesticating. He continued working for the Hare Lab for a few months after graduating, and he is now in graduate school in Japan.
Laura Lewis (Class of '16)
Graduate student at Harvard University with Alexandra Rosati. She is interested in understanding the evolution of human social cognition, with a particular interest in risk behavior adaptations that may have evolved in response to pressures from varying social environments.
Ben Allen (Class of '16)
Law student at Vermont Law School. Ben worked with different adult dog populations as an undergraduate with the lab. For his thesis, titled "Comparison of temperament and social cognition in juvenile dogs and wolves", Ben studied the differences between dog and wolf puppies. After graduating, Ben worked as the lab coordinator in the Hare Lab for one year before moving to D.C. to work with Population Connection and then attending law school.
Emma Blumstein (Class of '14)
Emma spent two summers testing service dogs at Canine Compaions for Independence headquarters in Santa Rosa, CA. As a seinor thesis student, Emma continued her work with dogs through her project, "Attention deficits: The effects of a human face on canine transposition tasks."
Emily Bray (Class of '12)
Postdoctoral Scholar at University of Arizona with Dr. Evan MacLean. As a thesis student, Emily studied, "Context specificity of inhibitory control in dogs." She also studied the relationship between emotional arousal and inhibitory control in dogs by spending time with service and pet dogs.
Katie Patellos (Class of '11)
Veterinarian at Triangle Veterinary Referral Hospital. Katie's senior thesis project was titled, "Trust formation in domestic dogs: Effect of short term interaction on comprehension of communicative gestures."