Plenary speakers

Dr. Fuirst has an impressive research program that explores how environmental change influences avian movement throughout the annual cycle, as well as how these movements impact lifetime fitness and population dynamics. Dr. Fuirst has already demonstrated that his research is highly integrative, combining techniques and data from population-, behavioural-, spatial-, and molecular-ecology to understand the mechanistic basis of animal behaviour and the fitness implications of movement strategies. Dr. Fuirst is recognized for his highly collaborative research both within and outside academia, exceptional publication record, and commitment to student and peer mentorship. Currently, Dr. Fuirst holds a dual role at Birds Canada. As Manager of Observatory Operations, Dr. Fuirst is responsible for overseeing the research and migration monitoring at Long Point Bird Observatory and its many programs and, as a Research Fellow, he is currently examining the mechanisms driving regional variation in productivity of Common Loon across North American.

Catarina Vila-Pouca is a Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions postdoctoral fellow at the ​Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE-CNRS) in Montpellier, France, and an affiliate of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. 

Her research focuses mostly on understanding ecological and evolutionary drivers of variation in behavior and cognitive abilities. Her work integrates behavioral and cognitive traits, neuroanatomy, ecology, and life-history to reveal how individuals vary in a range of cognitive abilities and elucidate the evolutionary mechanisms that can lead to the variation that we see among species and individuals. Although most of her work involves experiments in the lab, she is also an enthusiast of taking a cognitive ecology approach to study wild animals in their natural environment.

She has studied the behavior of blue sharks off the North Atlantic and of the charismatic Port Jackson sharks from Australia. She was also very lucky to have worked with a fascinating and classic system for ecology and evolution, the guppies of Trinidad.

I was born and raised in Mexico, where my fascination with animal behavior began at a young age. I completed my undergraduate and graduate studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), graduating with honors in both. I was honored with the Alfonso Caso Medal for being the most distinguished member of the Master's Program in Marine Sciences and Limnology. In 2022, I was admitted into the National System of Researchers in Mexico. For the past two years, I have been a full-time professor at the Faculty of Sciences, UNAM, where I direct the Laboratory of Behavioral Ecology of Aquatic Animals.

My interests are diverse and include ecophysiology, animal welfare, and the impacts of global changes, such as the effects of microplastics on the physiology and behavior of fish and crabs. Throughout my academic career, I have explored various topics, from the factors modulating resource competition in hermit crabs to the effects of global change on the behavior of fish and sea lions.

Currently, I am leading a project studying the effects of competition between invasive species and Mexican endemic species in natural protected areas. Additionally, I collaborate with conservation institutions to identify priority areas for freshwater and aim to apply my research findings to improve planning, management, and policy. 

Stefânia holds a PhD in Ecology from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), a Master’s in Vertebrate Biology from the Graduate Program in Vertebrate Biology at PUC-Minas, and a Bachelor’s in Biological Sciences from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUC-Minas). She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Physiology at the University of São Paulo. Her research focuses on understanding how social interactions can influence animals' escape decisions, and whether glucocorticoid hormones may mediate the relationship between social interactions and anti-predatory behavior. She also works in the field of community and population ecology and has a strong interest in data analysis, as she believes in the importance of a multidisciplinary approach in research. She loves science communication and hopes to make her findings more accessible to the general public someday.