MAURICIO CANTOR, PHD

Dr. Mauricio Cantor

Oregon State University
Marine Mammal Institute
Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences
Hatfield Marine Science Center
Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building, Office #356
2030 SE Marine Science Drive, Newport, OR 97365, USA
Email: mauricio.cantor 'at' oregonstate 'dot' edu
Phone: +1 (541) 8670-357

Oi.

I am a biologist fascinated by emerging strategies in Nature. The overarching goal of my research is to better link behavioural ecology to the ecology of interactions, both among individuals and among species, by combining theoretical models with empirical data. I am mostly interested in understanding how animal social systems emerge from simple rules among interacting individuals, and how selection acts on the individual sociality and the emergent collective social patterns. I primarily use cetaceans as research models due to their behavioural diversity, learning ability and social complexity—not to mention the exciting fieldwork challenges that come with studying them. My empirical work combines classical methods with emerging technologies for collecting and processing data; and relies on multiple statistical and modelling methods for analyzing the resulting large volume of data. My theoretical work has been inspired by sociobiology, complex systems and network theory to produce conceptual frameworks and in silico experiments in animal ecology. My areas of interest include: behavioural ecology, sociobiology, animal behaviour, behavioural evolution, cultural transmission, population ecology, community ecology, ecological networks, quantitative ecology, ecological modelling, and analyses of biological data.

Bio

I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences , Marine Mammal Institute and Marine Studies Initiative of the Oregon State University, and I am based in Newport, USA.

I also volunteer as a researcher affiliated to the following institutions:

Non-tenured adjunct faculty in the Ecology graduate programme at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil (since 2018);
Non-tenured adjunct faculty in the Coastal and Oceanic Systems graduate programme at the Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil (since 2018);
Honorary researcher at the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa (since 2018);

I have worked in the following institutions as:

Postdoctoral researcher: Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies at Max-Planck-Institut of Animal Behaviour, Germany (2020-2021);
Postdoctoral researcher: Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zürich, Switzerland (2021);
Postdoctoral research fellow: Department of Collective Behaviour at the Max-Planck-Institut of Animal Behaviour, affiliated to the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour of the Department of Biology at the University Konstanz;
Fixed-term Adjunct Lecturer: Centre for Biological Sciences, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil (2018).
Postdoctoral researcher: Centre for Marine Studies at the Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil (2017-2018);
Postdoctoral research fellow: Department of Ecology and Zoology of the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil (2016-2020).
Associate researcher: Aquatic Mammals Lab (LAMAq), Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil (2011-2016)
Associate researcher: NGO Instituto Baleia Jubarte, Brazil (2009-2012).

I received a PhD from the Department of Biology, Dalhousie University (Canada, Halifax, NS) in 2016, a MSc degree in Ecology at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Florianópolis, SC, Brazil) in 2011, and a BSc/teaching degree in Biology at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Campinas, SP, Brazil) in 2008.