Damien Farine

I am currently an Associate Professor at the Australian National University, an Affiliated Scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, and a National Geographic Explorer.

I was previously an Eccellenza Professor at the University of Zurich, a Principal Investigator at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, a Principal Investigator at the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, and a Lecturer at the University of Konstanz. Prior to this, I was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford and a Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute fellow based at the University of California Davis. I studied my PhD at the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford.

In 2018, I was awarded the Christopher Barnhard award for Outstanding Contributions by a New Investigator by the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. In 2019, I was awarded an ERC Starting Grant on The Ecology of Collective Behaviour. I have been included in the 2019 to 2025 ISI Highly Cited Researchers lists. In 2025 I was awarded the Swiss Business 2025 Award for Science and Research. In 2026, I was awarded the National Geographic Wayfinder Award.