Our People

Dr. Eliza Bliss-Moreau / lab leadeR

Eliza (she/her) is a Chancellor’s Leadership Professor in the Department of Psychology and a Core Scientist at the California National Primate Research Center and Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of California, Davis. She completed her undergraduate (S.B. in biology and psychology) and graduate training (Ph.D. in psychology) at Boston College and postdoctoral training in nonhuman primate neuroscience, primatology, and systems science at UC Davis.  Prior to joining Psychology, she was a faculty member in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. She is a member of the Psychology Graduate Group (which offers a Ph.D.), the Animal Behavior Graduate Group (which offers a Ph.D.), the Neuroscience Graduate Group (which offers a Ph.D.), and the Animal Biology Graduate Group (which offers a M.S. and a Ph.D).

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Jeffery Bennett / Brain Lab Leader

Jeff brings more than 20 years of experience in neuroanatomy, histology, imaging, and surgery to the lab. Jeff leads the neuroanatomy side of the lab which includes carrying out both histological and neuroimaging experiments. His current anatomical obsession is the claustrum.

joey charbonneau / Ph.D. CANDIDATE (Neuroscience)

Joey is a graduate student and his research interests center around the neurobiological and evolutionary bases of self-awareness—including awareness of both psychological functions (as in metacognition) and physiological functions (as in interoception). He is also interested in the ways in which these functions are impacted in healthy aging and disease, including neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric conditions, and the potential for plasticity in the neural networks that give rise to these functions (with a focus on the insular cortex). His research is funded by a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F31) from the National Institute on Aging. Joey completed his B.A. in 2019 at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where he crafted an interdisciplinary concentration combining fields including neuroscience, psychiatry, history and philosophy of science, and music; the title of his degree was “Brain Science: Mind, Music, and History.” At NYU he carried out research on social learning in Mongolian gerbils in Dr. Dan Sanes' laboratory. Google Scholar Twitter

McKenzie Kanna / Research Technician

McKenzie earned her B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior from UC Davis in 2022. She has previously worked for UC Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory, gaining experience in animal care. She is interested in how affective life changes across an animal's lifespan, as well as in advancing the welfare of captive animals. With her knowledge and research experience, she hopes to pursue graduate studies.

Alyssa Maness / Ph.d. CANDIDATE (Psychology)

Alyssa is a graduate student broadly interested in non-human animal affect, emotion, and welfare. Her research will be focused on better understanding the affective experiences of goats and sheep and how we can use this knowledge to improve captive welfare and management. Alyssa graduated from UC Davis in 2014 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Wildlife Biology. Since then, she has worked as a laboratory assistant on projects exploring naturally occurring low-sociability in rhesus macaques as a model for core social deficits observed in humans with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and how social networks and dominance interactions relate to individual health outcomes.

Gilda Moadab / Behavior Lab Leader; Lab MAnager

Lab Manager. Right-hand man. Left-hand man. Assistant. Aide. She who gets hot water for tea. Reminder-in-chief. Muy importante. Interested in the evolution of psychological processes. 

Hannah Nguyen / Research Technician

Hannah received her B.S. in Animal Sciences, with an emphasis in animal behavior, from UC Davis in 2021. Hannah previously worked as a lab manager at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience for two years, and is planning to expand her knowledge in non-human primate research in the lab. Hannah is interested in all things behavior, specifically how perception and cognition change over time. Hannah has worked with a handful of different animal species, non-human primates being her favorite. When not at work, you can find Hannah watching movies at home, or on the pickleball courts.

Dr. Florent Pittet / Assistant Project Scientist

Florent is an ethologist broadly interested in behavioral and neurophysiological development, and particularly in the role played by parents and the broader social environment on ontogeny. After he completed his PhD at the University of Rennes (France) working on maternal effects in birds, he joined Tufts University under the guidance of Dr. Benjamin Nephew to explore how social stimulations affect maternal brain and offspring development in rodents. He subsequently joined Dr. Katie Hinde's Comparative Lactation Lab at Arizona State University to explore how variation in milk influences macaque infants' brain and behavioral development. Florent is now working in our team as an Assistant Project Scientist and focuses on understanding the relationship between social life, brain, behavior and affective processing from birth to senescence using both healthy and pathological models from our Zika and Alzheimer projects. When it is not for his researching, Florent's addiction for animal observation is indulged through wildlife photography.