The RESEARCHERS

Dr. Steven Hamilton: Dr. Hamilton is a psychiatrist and geneticist at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his PhD in Biological Chemistry and MD from the University of California, Los Angeles. He was a psychiatry resident and research fellow at Columbia University. His research focuses on identifying the genetic determinants of behavior. More information about projects in the laboratory can be found here.

Dr. Karen Overall: Dr. Overall is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists and certified by the Animal Behavior Society as an Applied Animal Behaviorist. Overall received her VMD degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983, completed a residency in behavioral medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989, and holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin. After running the Behavior Clinic at Penn Vet for more than a dozen years Dr. Overall is now a Research Associate in the Department of Psychiatry and Center for Neurobiology & Behavior at the University of Pennsylvania. She has spoken extensively nationally and internationally, and authored numerous articles on behavioral medicine and lizard behavioral ecology. Overall is author of the authoritative textbook entitled, "Clinical Behavioral Medicine for the Small Animal" by Mosby, and her text, "Manual of Veterinary Behavioral Medicine" will be published late in 2006 or early in 2007. Overall is the Editor-in-chief of the new Elsevier journal in the field, "Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clincal Applications and Research".

Maria Bautista: Ms Bautista is a Research Associate in the Hamilton laboratory, where she has been since 2002. She graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a degree in Biological Sciences. She has extensive experience in animal genetics after working in the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at UC Davis. She has been involved in developing many aspects of the canine behavioral genetics project at UCSF. In her spare time, Maria enjoys hiking, elaborate knitting projects, and four course meals.

Dr. Melanie Chang: Dr. Chang is a postdoctoral scholar in Dr. Hamilton's laboratory at UCSF, devoted to the Canine Behavioral Genetics Project. She holds a Ph.D. in physical anthropology and evolutionary biology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her primary research interests include systematics (taxonomy and phylogeny) and the reconstruction of population history. Dr. Chang has three dogs -- two Border Collies, Solo and Fly, and a Papillon, Skeeter, with whom she trains and competes in agility, flyball, and sheepdog trialing. Solo, her first Border Collie, is a dog with "baggage" who inspired her current interest in the etiology and treatment of problem dog behaviors. Dr.
Chang's dogs have their own home page here.

Essential literature can be found here.