Yuchen Chen
yuchenchen0531.bsky.social
Yuchen Chen
@yuchenchen0531.bsky.social
Junior at Duke University💙😈 | Major in Biology, Minors in Visual& Media Studies and Religious Studies | communication and cognition | social-sexual selection | 🧗‍♀️🏳️‍🌈🎬🖼️ she/her

I will be studying away in Copenhagen 2026 spring!!!
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
New (competition funded) PhD opportunity with me,
@iaciac.bsky.social and @dralgernon.bsky.social
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Higher-order networks and animal communication. Suited to someone keen on network science theory/computational modeling and keen to adapt this to ecology & evolution.
February 9, 2026 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
Fun news! @gcbias.bsky.social and I are teaching a 2-week online population genetics workshop this summer to raise money for the Center for Population Biology at UC Davis. We're trying to gauge interest -- please fill this out if you might be interested! And please share broadly!
Davis Summer Population Genomics Program
Want to learn population genetics? Please fill out this form to indicate your potential interest in a 2-week intensive online summer population genetics course taught by Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra and Graham...
docs.google.com
February 9, 2026 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
Are you an early career ABS member with diverse lived experiences that also studies sex &/or reproduction? Do you want to be interviewed for the "I Came For Science" podcast by fellow ABS member Laura Sirot? I bet you do!

(Contact info on their webpage)
www.icameforscience.org
February 9, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
Ecological and social pressures drive same-sex sexual behaviour in non-human primates 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ecological and social pressures drive same-sex sexual behaviour in non-human primates - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Phylogenetic regression and structural equation modelling of environmental, social and life history traits across the primate clade indicates correlates for same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB), and sugges...
www.nature.com
January 28, 2026 at 9:57 AM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
Internships are now available with the Cornish Jackdaw Project! 🐦‍⬛

Duties will include assisting with nest monitoring, bird ringing, data entry, and the potential to help with ongoing research projects.
January 15, 2026 at 8:27 AM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
We are looking to hire a Seabird Field Assistant for 2026 for our Manx Shearwater research project.

Please share this to anyone who'd like to get out in the field this summer and learn about biotelemetry, bird handling and research into animal behaviour.

drive.google.com/file/d/1SGZt...
January 5, 2026 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
I am recruiting postbacs for my parakeet sociality and cognition project, ideally to start in Feb/Mar this year. Help spreading the word would be appreciated! More information and application link available here: ornithologyexchange.org/jobs/board/s...
January 6, 2026 at 4:29 PM
Thank you!
Neat #sicb2026 talk on monk parakeets by @yuchenchen0531.bsky.social finding that most aggression is sex agnostic, although males tend to initiate slightly more. Love the point that it's important to look at intersexual aggression, especially in highly social species like monk parakeets.
January 7, 2026 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
If you’re sad #ASABWinter2025 is over, have no fear! #ASABSpring2025 🌼 is coming soon, from March 23-25 at Bristol University. It’s an especially fantastic meeting for students and ECRs 🤠

Don’t forget travel grants are due Feb 1!

www.asab.org/conferences-...
December 16, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
I'm teaching Statistical Rethinking again starting Jan 2026. This time with live lectures, divided into Beginner and Experienced sections. Will be a lot more work for me, but I hope much better for students.

I will record lectures & all will be found at this link: github.com/rmcelreath/s...
December 9, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
Preprint!
Ever wondered why individuals within the same species migrate differently? Or what drives some animals to become partial migrants? Then, this paper is for you!

Our new paper synthesizes the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that shape partial migration.
Link: doi.org/10.22541/au....
Understanding partial migration: linking genetic, developmental, and environmental drivers
Partial migration, where some individuals in a population migrate while others remain resident, arises from the dynamic interplay of multiple non-exclusive eco-evolutionary mechanisms. These mechanism...
doi.org
December 2, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
Excited to share our methods preprint on CapuchinAI! 🐒💻

We built a field touchscreen + real-time facial recognition system (YOLOv7) that lets wild capuchins “log in” and complete individualized cognitive tasks.
@emoryuniversity.bsky.social @gatechengineers.bsky.social

#PrimateCognition #AI
December 1, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
Excited to introduce the Latent Layers Framework – now out in @behavecol.bsky.social – to help think through when and why network differences confound inference in (comparative) social network analysis! 🧵

tinyurl.com/3k3yahwy
November 24, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
@asab.org Spring, aimed at ECRs, is coming to Bristol!

Conference grant DEADLINE for Developing Country Applicants (<£2500) or anyone needing an early decision for visas (<£750) is in ONE WEEK, 1st December.
www.asab.org/conference-g...

Referee statement also needed by then! 🐝🐜🦟🦂🐠🐟🐬🦎🐸🦆🐿️🦓
November 24, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
Lifetime fitness and annual survival are heritable and highly genetically correlated in a wild primate population https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.13.688343v1
November 14, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
🚨Good news, everyone!
1) I'm thrilled to be joining the behavior powerhouse that is Indiana University!! So stoked, starting Jan 2026.
2) I'm recruiting grad students! Are you (or your trainee) interested in sensory ecology? behavior? evolution? fieldwork? spiders? Drop me a line Jstafstr(at)iu.edu
November 22, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
Calling all rising juniors & seniors: Interested in biological or biomedical research? Applications for our ’26 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Program are now open! Nine weeks, hands-on research, & mentorship from some of the nation’s top scientists — learn more: bit.ly/CechFellows
Summer Undergraduate Research Experience | HHMI
The Cech Fellows Program is a paid, nine-week summer research experience empowering the next generation of scientific leaders.
bit.ly
November 18, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
Transmitting Science offers a course on "Introduction to Machine Learning in R" starting January 9, 2026. Learn to implement ML using {tidymodels}. Learn more: https://www.transmittingscience.com/courses/statistics-and-bioinformatics/introduction-to-machine-learning-in-r/ #course
Introduction to Machine Learning in R
Join our Live Online Course to explore the key components of Machine Learning and enhance your skills in R.
www.transmittingscience.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
After the Ngogo chimpanzee group killed 21 members of neighboring groups and expanded their territory by 22%, female birth rates more than doubled and infant survival increased sharply—showing clear fitness benefits from intergroup killing. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/TKmf50XuPjY
November 22, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
📢Two fully-funded #PhD opportunities to work with us:

Topic: Social monitoring & manipulation

UK-domiciled black-heritage scheme: tinyurl.com/aja54nr6

NERC DLTP: tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp

Cosupervisors: #PatrickKennedy @ljnbrent.bsky.social
@bristolbiosci.bsky.social
#bioacoustics #mammals #fieldwork
November 21, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
The earliest mature debate about animal consciousness occurred around 1900 and centred on the insects. We cover this rich history in this new article, as well as some more recent developments on the topic: royalsocietypublishing.org/.../10.../rs...
November 14, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
Two weeks ago now @jennytung.bsky.social and I published a new review in Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, entitled “Evolutionary genetics meets ecological immunology: insights into the evolution of immune systems.” www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A thread below...
Evolutionary genetics meets ecological immunology: insights into the evolution of immune systems
Immune genes show remarkably consistent evidence of selection, modification, and diversification across the tree of life. Parasites are a key force in…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 17, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
For undergraduates curious about complex systems research, applications are now open for the 2026 Undergraduate Complexity Research (UCR) program — a fully funded, 10-week summer research experience at the Santa Fe Institute.

Apply by Jan. 14, 2026: santafe.edu/ucr
November 17, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Yuchen Chen
Meet our plenary speaker Felicity Muth!

Assistant professor at the University of California Davis, her lab group are broadly interested in cognition, especially aspects of learning and memory that have a clear function in the natural world, focusing on captive and wild bumblebees.
November 6, 2025 at 9:43 AM