Ahana Aurora Fernandez

I am a behavioral biologist specialized in bioacoustics and biolinguistics. I have always been fascinated by vocal communication, in particular by vocal ontogeny and vocal learning. Communication also plays a major role in our daily lives: language, more than anything else, defines human nature. Investigating the biological foundations of language in non-human animals is a promising approach to deepen the knowledge about our complex communication system. This is why I investigate key components of human language in animals, particularly in bats, combining fieldwork and playback experiments. I hold expertise in social behaviour and acoustic communication, especially about vocal ontogenetic processes. For my doctoral thesis, I studied the vocal ontogeny in a vocal learning bat species in the tropics. I graduated in 2020 (summa cum laude) and subsequently started my postdoc at the Lab of Mirjam Knörnschild. During my current first postdoc position, I am training myself in neuroethological methods to explore the neurogenetics of vocal learning.