About
Dr. Lohr received an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Neurobiology and Behavior from Cornell University. He went on to complete a Masters degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee working on vocal sequence organization in birds. He later obtained a PhD from Duke University where he studied song perception in chickadees. From there he went on to a postdoc at the Center for Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing at the University of Maryland where he worked on auditory mechanisms in a range of bird taxa including songbirds, parrots, woodpeckers, owls, and hummingbirds.Research interests
We are interested in bioacoustics and auditory sensory ecology, taking an integrative approach that draws on methods from behavioral ecology, neurophysiology, comparative psychology, and evolutionary biology to investigate fundamental questions in animal communication. How do animals encode information in the signals they produce? How do they extract information from such signals perceptually? How do these processes function in “noisy” natural habitats? And, ultimately, what factors shape the evolution of such processes? We study these questions comparatively, and have worked on a variety of bird groups including hummingbirds, owls, and woodpeckers, but focus principally on songbirds as a model for understanding the interplay of signal production, signal perception, and properties of the acoustic channel.Teaching interests
Animal Behavior (BIOL 480 / 680)Undergraduate Research Seminar (BIOL 499L)
Graduate Research Seminar in Evolution and Ecology (BIOL 769)
Comparative Animal Physiology (BIOL 305)
Education
- Ph D, Zoology — Duke University (1995)
- MS, Zoology — University of Wisconsin (1989)
- BA, Biological sciences — Cornell University (1984)