Project Supervisors

Tom Smulders

Tom Smulders is Reader in Evolutionary Neuroscience at Newcastle University (UK). After obtaining a degree in Zoology from Antwerp University (Belgium), he conducted his PhD work at Cornell University (USA). Throughout his career, Tom has been interested in how brains and behaviour co-evolve. He is an expert in the biology of the avian hippocampal formation, and has studied its role in the memory for hidden food. More recently, Tom has started investigating the role of the avian hippocampal formation in the control of the stress response and as a tissue that is sensitive to chronic stress. As such, he has used the regulation of adult neurogenesis (the addition of new neurons) in the hippocampal formation as a biomarker of chronic stress (and therefore potentially poor welfare) in poultry. Tom currently coordinates the ChickenStress European Training Network.

Tom has responsibility for leading Work Package 1 and is a supervisor for Project 2: Connections and stress-related activity of different neuron subpopulations of the central extended amygdala and Project 7: Effects of early-life experiences on micro-circuitry in forebrain areas involved in stress regulation.