Meeting: The Future of Research in Animal Behavior, Airlie Center, Warrenton VA, 27 April - 1 May 2012

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Scientists who study animal behavior ask questions about why and how animals behave as they do. Because scientists can see what animals do, they can test theories more easily than they might in other circumstances. Then they can look for the same kinds of patterns in more difficult circumstances, such as among microbes inhabiting environments important to humans. Studies of animal behavior are also important for understanding the role of the brain, the nervous system, and hormones in influencing actions. An understanding of animal behavior is also crucial for conservation. Habitat preservation choices depend on understanding how target organisms live. Studies of animal behavior have also revealed how conflicts among relatives arise and are controlled. The challenge now is to work hard to use the power of animal behavior studies to solve human and environmental problems in new, innovative ways that escape a zero-sum mindset, instead revealing synergistic, win-win solutions. The workshop will bring together a diverse set of researchers from animal behavior, systems biology, genetics and genomics, neurobiology, computational biology, and social science. This exciting group will combine new ideas from animal behavior with new ideas from complementary fields to meet grand challenges of biology. This group will show how animal behavior studies can help with the challenges facing humans on this planet. The intellectual products of this workshop will be shared widely.