Beau Alward, Ph.D.
Biography
Beau Alward got his associates degree at American River Community College before transferring to the University of California, Davis where he earned a BS in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior. After graduating, he worked as a behavioral therapist for children with Autism for a year and half before starting his PhD with Gregory Ball at Johns Hopkins University. His dissertation work was on the neuroendocrine regulation of birdsong in canaries. Beau did his postdoctoral research on the hormonal control of social dominance in cichlids in Russell Fernald’s lab at Stanford University, where he was an Arnold Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow. Research in his lab aims to understand how steroid hormones modulate social behaviors in the cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni.
Research Interests
The Alward lab is interested in how steroid hormones generate social behaviors. Our chosen organism for answering this question is the cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni. These fish exhibit dynamic social interactions that can be readily studied in the lab. We combine approaches using molecular genetics, transcriptomics, neurobiology, and behavioral paradigms in both sexes to yield fundamental insights into the hormonal control of behavior.