Behavioural & Sensory Ecology
The Barnett Lab @ Trinity College Dublin
The Behavioural & Sensory Ecology Lab
Dr. Jim Barnett (he/him)
Assistant Professor in Zoology
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Email: jbarnett [at] tcd.ie
Web: www.tcd.ie/Zoology
Jim is a behavioural ecologist interested in the evolution and conservation of biodiversity. He uses visual ecology in the field and laboratory to understand how animals perceive their surroundings, synthesise complex multimodal information to make decisions, and interact with both conspecifics and heterospecifics.
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Jim did his PhD at the University of Bristol (UK) and held postdoctoral positions at McGill University (QC, Canada), McMaster University (ON, Canada), and the University of Helsinki (Finland).
Postgraduate Researchers
Ailis Wynne
MSc by Research (2024 - 2026)
Based at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Email: wynneai [at] tcd.ie
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Ailis works on artificial light at night and how light pollution affects the behaviour of nocturnal pollinators in Ireland. Ailis' research includes field and laboratory behaviour experiments with moths, visual modelling, and psychophysics experiments with human participants.
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Ailis is co-advised by Prof Jane Stout and Dr Jessica Knapp in the Discipline of Botany at Trinity College Dublin.
Previous members
Dr. Brendan McEwen
PhD (2018 - 2025)
Based at McMaster University, Canada
Email: mceweb1 [at] mcmaster.ca
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Brendan is interested in the evolution of imperfect mimicry and is working with poison frogs to ask how multiple functions of colour (warning signals, mimicry, & camouflage) interact with behaviour. Brendan's research includes field and computer-based experiments to explore how this interaction differs between model and mimic and how different defences are employed at different life stages.
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Brendan is based in Prof Reuven Dukas' lab at McMaster University (ON, Canada) and is co-advised by Prof Justin Yeager at Universidad de las Americas Quito (Ecuador).