Cerise Allen is a doctoral student at Indiana University in the Department of Biology and the Program in Animal Behavior, studying in the laboratory of Dr. Butch Brodie. She came to Indiana University in 1998 from the University of Kentucky, where she also studied with Dr. Brodie. Cerise received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She plans to complete her Ph.D. in 2001.

Animal Behavior Bulletin: Your current research interests concern the examination of the role of behavioral ontogenies through an evolutionary approach. What drew you to this important and fascinating idea? Why did you decide to take an evolutionary approach?

Cerise Allen: As an undergrad, I got very interested in two subjects: embryology, and animal behavior. They seemed completely unconnected, but I was lucky enough to have a couple of fantastic professors who convinced me that studying animal behavior and animal development together was not as strange as it sounded (to me) at the time. Then, starting grad school I was surrounded by people who thought a lot about evolutionary processes and variation within populations. Being in this environment (I started graduate school at the University of Kentucky, and came to Indiana University in 1998) helped me understand that it was important to think about development from an evolutionary perspective because development plays a crucial role in generating variation among individuals. This is true for any trait, but I stayed fascinated by the behavioral transitions animals undergo during their development from newborns or hatchlings to adults, and I wanted to understand how those ontogenies evolve. There are currently lots of people doing theoretical and empirical work at the interface of development and evolution, where for animals the focus tends to be on morphological characters, and I was interested in studying behavior from this perspective.

Animal Behavior Bulletin: By what specific experimental methods are you studying evolutionary aspects of behavioral ontogenies?

Cerise Allen: I'm interested in tadpole behavior and morphology, and the main goal of my research is to understand if the ontogenies for these traits are "flexible," that is, could changes in behavior and/or morphology at one larval stage evolve without affecting those traits at other stages. To do this, I've focused on two related issues. First, how do the ontogenies for behavior (I've worked mostly with swimming behavior) and morphology vary among individual tadpoles of the Cope's gray treefrog, Hyla chrysoscelis. Second, what are the genetic and phenotypic relationships between these traits, and between larval stages. To do this, I've reared lots of tadpoles from known families in the laboratory and assessed the morphology and swimming behavior of individuals at multiple stages of larval ontogeny. Then, I've used statistical techniques from quantitative genetics to examine the genetic components underlying morphology and behavior at each stage, and the relationships between stages of larval ontogeny.

Animal Behavior Bulletin: What new ideas for future research do you believe will develop from the results you obtain? Do you plan on pursuing these ideas?

Cerise Allen: In animal behavior, there was a tendency in the past to emphasize environmental effects when individual variation in behavior was discussed. I hope that my own research contributes to the growing discussion of the ways that genes and the developmental environment affect the evolution of complex traits, like behavior. Right now, I'm even more interested than when I began my research in the evolutionary potential of development, and I definitely plan on pursuing this after graduate school. There are a lot of unanswered questions about the ways in which developmental programs generate variation, and the nature of developmental "constraints" on evolutionary processes. All of these issues are relevant to behavioral evolution, although they can be difficult to tackle because some behavioral traits are so complex and are under the influence of so many genetic and environmental factors during ontogeny.

Animal Behavior Bulletin: As a graduate student about to obtain an advanced degree, what advice would you give to incoming students who wish to study animal behavior? What important general lessons have you gained through your academic career that you plan to carry with you in your future career?

Cerise Allen: I've had the good luck to be associated throughout graduate school with interdisciplinary and integrative programs, where students were encouraged to develop a "big picture" understanding of their research. Though it is necessary to spend a lot of time thinking about the details of your particular experimental system and the theory developed in your specialized area, my advice would be to spend equal time thinking about the implications of your research outside of your particular subdiscipline, or even outside of animal behavior. Trying to do this has really strengthened the quality of my work, and I believe it can really help scientists to communicating the goals of their research to others.

Animal Behavior Bulletin: What do you think will be the most important public policy issue relating to science in the next decade? Do you think this issue will be satisfactorily resolved?

Cerise Allen: A lot of what scientists (even animal behaviorists!) do will eventually have some bearing on the public, and on public policy. Where science bears on public policy, I think scientists have a responsibility to inform those debates. I don't know that the current big issues (like evolution in school curriculums, uses of biotechnology, human cloning and embryo research) have short-term or easy solutions. For me, the biggest issue underlying these debates is the poor job we do in this country of educating the general public about science, from grade school on. I don't think these debates can be solved in a way that is satisfactory either to scientists or non-scientists until we improve education, and give people the tools they need to understand the effects scientific discoveries have on their lives.

Animal Behavior Bulletin: Do you think that research scientists themselves can help improve the state of science education by doing more in the way of public education and K-12 education?

Cerise Allen: Yes! I've met lots of people who are very committed to outreach and public education, and who manage to make tremendous contributions despite the very real constraints of time, and research, and institutional expectations. I don't think there's a single approach we should advocate: not everybody chooses to get involved in the same way. Some people might choose to get involved directly in public-policy debates, or by conducting outreach in the schools. Some might make the valuable contribution of learning how to explain their research to non-scientists. For me, one of the most important things is to stay informed. For example, learning what the local and national standards are for science education in the public schools, and then making a personal decision about what kind of action to take. In addition, I think universities need to acknowledge that many people trained as research scientists end up in careers that emphasize education over research, and need to prepare students to be both top-notch researchers and effective educators.


EDITOR'S NOTE: Are you interested in reading more about the interplay between development and evolution? There may be no better place to begin than the following:

Raff, R.A. and E.C. Kaufman. Embryos, Genes, and Evolution: The Developmental Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change. (NY,NY: Macmillan).

Whats a Cope's Gray Treefrog?
A Cope's gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) is a small (about 5 cm long) gray or green frog that is identical in appearance to the common gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor). In fact, the two can only be told apart by their calls, and by their chromosome number. Hyla versicolor is tetraploid, whereas Hyla chrysoscelis is diploid -- i.e., it has half as many chromosomes as Hyla versicolor. Both species are found in moist woodlands and shrub swamps throughout the eastern half of the United States.