Presentation Details
Collaborations in Spider Vision and Institutional Change

Elizabeth Jakob.

University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

Abstract


In this presidential address, I’ll discuss highlights from my two main activities over the last decade: collaborative research on jumping spider vision and my unexpected diversion into the leadership of the Graduate School at UMass Amherst. In research, our development of a jumping spider eyetracker allows us an unusually detailed view of how an invertebrate predator directs its visual attention. The eyetracker has enabled a variety of diverse projects and rewarding collaborations with investigators from around the world. For example, we have studied how the moveable principal eyes work in coordination with the immobile secondary eyes, how spiders observe potential prey and prospective mates, whether spiders detect biological motion cues, and how cross-modal cues influence eye movements. Some of our experimental approaches have been designed in collaboration with cognitive psychologists who study perception in human infants. From the Graduate School perspective, I will briefly describe what I view as the main challenges (of many) facing graduate education today and will offer some transferable ideas for supporting student success.

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