Dr. Christopher Sturdy

Dr. Christopher Sturdy is a professor at the University of Alberta in the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Science. He studies songbird communication and cognition in an integrative fashion, combining several approaches to understand the biological and cognitive bases of underlying songbird acoustic communication. Dr. Sturdy holds the long-term goal of understanding the behavioural, cognitive, and neural substrates underlying songbird vocal production and perception, auditory perception and cognition. He completed a B.A. in Psychology at the University of Windsor in 1994 where he studied spatial memory in rats with Jerry Cohen. He then completed an M.A. in 1997 and a Ph.D. in 2000 in Psychology at Queen's University where he examined songbird bioacoustics, cognition and neuroscience with Ron Weisman. From 2000 to 2001, Dr. Sturdy worked at the Duke University Medical Center with Rich Mooney (Department of Neurobiology) and Duke University with Steve Nowicki (Department of Biology) where he examined the cellular basis of song production. In 2002 he was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Alberta, promoted to Associate Professor of Psychology in 2008, and promoted to Professor in 2013. Sturdy served as Chair of the Department of Psychology from 2016-2019. Sturdy is currently Professor of Psychology, a member of the Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, and Canada Research Chair in Animal Cognition, Communication, and Neuroethology, Tier 1 (2020-2027). You can read more about Dr. Sturdy regarding his research and teachings through this web link: https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/csturdy