Rate My Professor Jason Keagy

Keagy's research focuses on cognitive ecology at genome, individual, and species levels, investigating animal cognition, behavioral flexibility, phenotypic plasticity, neurogenomics, and responses to anthropogenic stressors such as thermal stress, noise, and light pollution. He applies landscape transcriptomics to wildlife management and conservation challenges, studying species including threespine stickleback, brook trout, guppies, bluebirds, and tree swallows to develop non-lethal biomarkers and assess adaptation to environmental change. As principal investigator or co-principal investigator, he has obtained grants including Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences SNIP Level II Launch Grant ($25,000, 2021-2023), SNIP Level I Launch Grant ($10,000, 2020-2022), NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity subaward ($68,000, 2016-2021), and multiple BEACON NSF Center grants. Honors include Animal Behavior Society Allee Competition Finalist (2010), Best Student Research Award from University of Maryland Behavior, Ecology, Evolution and Systematics (2010), and American Ornithological Union Best Student Talk (2009). Key publications encompass “Mate choice in the brain: Species differ in how male traits 'turn on' gene expression in female brains” (Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2024), “The role of mate competition in speciation and divergence: a systematic review” (Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2024), “Behavior-related gene regulatory networks: A new level of organization in the brain” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020), “Male competition fitness landscapes predict both forward and reverse speciation” (Ecology Letters, 2016), and “Cognitive ability and the evolution of multiple behavioral display traits” (Behavioral Ecology, 2012).