Elisabetta Versace — Curriculum Vitae
Current position
- Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London (UK) - Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute (UK)
- Associate Researcher at Harvard University (USA) - Visiting Researcher at University of Trento (Italy)
Previous academic positions
2018-2021: Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London (UK)
2014-2017: Senior postdoc at the Animal Cognition and Neuroscience laboratory, University of Trento, Italy
2016-2017: Postdoc at the de Bivort lab, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University (USA) 2012-2013: Postdoc at the Institute of Population Genetics, VetmedUni Vienna (Austria) Academic career break
2008-2011: Scientific publishing professional Qualifications
2020: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK)
2008: PhD in Psychology at the Animal Cognition Laboratory, University of Trieste (Italy) 2004: Degree in Psychology (Psychobiology), University of Trieste (Italy)
Grants, fellowships, prizes, awards
2021-2022: Royal Society Leverhulme Trust fellowship: Generalisation using sparse data: from animal to artificial systems (£ 65,000)
2021-2024: Leverhulme Trust research grant: Generalisation from limited experience: how to solve the problem of induction (£ 269,000)
2021: ESRC research grant: Augmented Feedback to Enhance Motor and Artistic Learning During Social Distancing (£ 294,000)
2020-2021: BBSRC research grant: Developmental reprogramming following prenatal acoustic signals (£ 253,000)
2019-2021: Alan Turing Institute grant: General AI and interactive robots for farming (£ 22,000) 2019: Royal Society Research Grant (£ 20,000)
2019: Westfield fund for enhancing the student experience (£ 2,300)
2019: Poster award at 2019 CogEvo workshop, University of Trento (Italy)
2016: Mind Brain and Behavior grant, Harvard University, in collaboration with Professor de Bivort ($ 15,000)
2018: Honorary Poster mention at Evolang, international conference on the Evolution of Language 2008: L’Oréal Italia for Women and Science award (dismissed)
2008: Fellowship of the Italian Publishers Association
2006: Grant “Progetto D4” Area Science Park, Trieste
2005-2008: PhD Fellowship of the Italian Ministry of Education
Peer-reviewed publications
c corresponding author; * these authors contributed equally
41) Josserand M, Rosa-Salva O, Versace E, Lemaire BS (2021) Visual Field Analysis: a reliable method to score left- and right-eye use using automated tracking, Behavior Research Methods (2021). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01702-6
40) Versacec E, Ragusa M, Pallante V, Wang S (2021) Attraction for familiar conspecifics in young chicks (Gallus gallus): an interbreed study, Behavioural Processes 104498
39) Slonina A, Bonzini A, Brown J, Wang S, Farkhatdinov I, Althoefer K, Jamone L, Versacec E (2021) Using RoboChick to Identify the Behavioural Features Promoting Social Interactions, 2021 IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL)
38) Lorenzi E, Lemaire B, Versace E, Matsushima T, Vallortigara G (2021). Resurgence of an inborn attraction for animate objects via thyroid hormone T3, Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience 15 (72)
37) Rosa-Salva O, Mayer U, Versace E, Hebért M, Vallortigara G (2021) Sensitive periods for social development: Interactions between predisposed and learned mechanisms, Cognition https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104552
36) Pallantec V, Rucco D, Versacec E (2021) Young chicks quickly lose their spontaneous preference to aggregate with females. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 75 (5), 1-10, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03012-5
35) Lemaire B, Rucco D, Josserand M, Vallortigara G, Versacec E (2021) Stability and individual variability of social attachment in imprinting. Scientific Reports doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021- 86989-3
34) Versacec E, Damini S, Stancher G (2020). Early preference for face-like stimuli in solitary species as revealed by tortoise hatchlings, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 117, 39, 24047–24049
33) Hsu SK, Jakšić AM, Nolte V, Lirakis M, Kofler R, Barghi N, Versace E, Schlötterer C (2020) Rapid sex-specific adaptation to high temperature in Drosophila. eLife 9:1–16.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.53237
32) Versacec E, Caffini M, Werkhoven Z, de Bivort BL (2020) Individual, but not population asymmetries, are modulated by social environment and genotype in Drosophila melanogaster.
Scientific Reports 10:1–13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61410-7
31) Versacec E, Ragusa M, Vallortigara G (2020). A transient time window for early predispositions in newborn chicks. Scientific Reports 9:18767. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019- 55255-y
30) Hébertc M, Versacec E, Vallortigarac G (2019). Inexperienced preys know when to flee or to freeze in front of a threat, 1 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915504116.
29) Versacec E, Rogge J, Shelton-May N, Ravignani A (2019), Positional encoding in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus). Animal Cognition, 22(5), 825–838. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071- 019-01277-y
28) Lorenzi E, Pross A, Rosa-Salva O, Versace E, Sgadò P, Vallortigara G (2019) Embryonic Exposure to Valproic Acid Affects Social Predispositions for Dynamic Cues of Animate Motion in Newly-Hatched Chicks. Front. Physiol. 10:501, doi: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00501
27) Versacec E, Martinho-Truswell A, Kacelnik A, Vallortigara G (2018). Priors in Animal and Artificial Intelligence: Where Does Learning Begin? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 22(11) 963–925.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2018.07.005
26) Rosa-Salva O, Fiser* J, Versace* E, Dolci C, Chehaimi S, Santolin C, Vallortigara G (2018).
Spontaneous Learning of Visual Structures in Domestic Chicks. Animals 8, 135.
25) Peruffo S, Versacec E. Maccagnani B, Vallortigara G (2018) Honeybees learn patterns with flashing lights, in The Evolution of Language, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference, pp.
519-521.
24) Versacec E, Damini S, Caffini M, Stancher G (2018), Born to be asocial: newly-hatched tortoises spontaneously avoid unfamiliar individuals, Animal Behaviour 138, pp. 187-192
23) Sgadò P, Rosa-Salva* O, Versace* E, Giorgio Vallortigara G (2018) Embryonic Exposure to Valproic Acid Disrupts Social Predispositions in Newly-Hatched Chicks, Scientific Reports 8, 5919, oi:10.1038/s41598-018-24202-8
22) Belloni V, Galeazzi A, Bernini G, Mandrioli M, Versace E, Haase* A (2018) Evolutionary compromises to environmental toxins: Ammonia and urea tolerance in Drosophila suzukii and Drosophila melanogaster. Physiology and Behavior, 191, 146–154.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.04.021
21) Chiandetti C, Lemaire B, Versace E, Vallortigara G (2017) Two temporal windows for embryonic light stimulation to modulate lateralization in chicks, Symmetry 9(6), 84, doi:10.3390/sym9060084
20) Versacec* E, Spierings* M, Caffini M, ten Cate C, Vallortigara G (2017) Spontaneous generalization of abstract multimodal patterns in young domestic chicks. Animal Cognition 20(3):521-529. doi: 10.1007/s10071-017-1079-5. à After exposure to only two patterned stimuli, abstract generalisation is spontaneous in young domestic chicks
19) Versacec E, Fracasso I, Baldan G, Dalle Zotte A, Vallortigara G (2017) Newborn chicks show inherited variability in early social predispositions for hen-like stimuli. Scientific Reports 40296, doi:10.1038/srep40296
18) Vallortigara G, Versacec E (2017) Laterality at the Neural, Cognitive and Behavioural Levels, In: Burghardt G, Pepperberg I, Call J, Zendall T (eds), “APA Handbook of Comparative Psychology”, American Psychological Association Press, Washington, USA, pp. 557-577
17) Di Giorgio* E, Loveland* J, Mayer* U, Rosa-Salva* O, Versace* E, Vallortigara G (2017).
Filial responses as predisposed and learned preferences: Early attachment in chicks and babies.
Behavioral Brain Research http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2016.09.018
16) Versacec E, Schill J, Nencini AM, Vallortigara G (2016) Naïve Chicks Prefer Hollow Objects.
PLOS ONE 11(11): e0166425. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166425
15) Rogers LJ, Frasnelli E, Versacec E (2016) Lateralized antennal control of aggression and sex differences in red mason bees, Osmia bicornis. Scientific Reports 6: 29411
14) Versacec E, Eriksson A, Castellan I, Rocchi F, Haase A (2016) Physiological and behavioral responses in Drosophila melanogaster to odor compounds present at different plant maturation stages. Physiology & Behavior doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2016.05.027
13) Versacec E, Vallortigara, G (2015) Forelimb preferences in human beings and other species:
12) Versacec E (2015) Experimental evolution, behavior and genetics: Associative learning as a case study. Current Zoology 61 (2): 226–241
11) Versacec E, Vallortigara G (2015) Origins of knowledge: Insights from precocial species.
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 9: 338. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00338
10) Versacec E, Reisenberger KJ (2015) Large-scale assessment of olfactory preferences and learning in Drosophila melanogaster: behavioural and genetic components. PeerJ 3:e1214.
doi:10.7717/peerj.1214
9) Versace E, Nolte V, Pandey RV, Tobler R, Schlötterer C (2014) Experimental Evolution Reveals Habitat Specific Fitness Dynamics among Wolbachia Clades in Drosophila melanogaster.
Molecular Ecology 23 (4): 802–814. doi:10.1111/mec.12643
8) Schlötterer C, Kofler R, Versace E, Franssen S, Tobler R (2014) Combining experimental evolution with next-generation sequencing: a powerful tool to study adaptation from standing genetic variation. Heredity 114 (431-440), doi:10.1038/hdy.2014.86
7) Versacec E, Vallortigara G (2014) Preliminary Study on Preferences for Hollow vs. Filled Social Partners in Domestic Chicks. Proceedings of the Trieste Symposium on Perception and Cognition, November 27th-28th 2014, pp. 457-458. eISBN 978-88-8303-610-1
6) Endress A, Carden S, Versace E, Hauser MD (2010) The apes' edge: Positional learning in chimpanzees and humans. Animal Cognition 13(3): 483-495 doi:101007/s10071-009-0299-8 5) Morgante M, Gianesella M, Versace E et al. (2010) Preliminary study on metabolic profile of pregnant and non-pregnant ewes with high or low degree of behavioral lateralization. Animal Science Journal 81: 722-730
4) Versacec E, Endress A, Hauser MD (2008) Pattern recognition mediates vocal plasticity in a nonhuman primate: experiments with cottontop tamarins. Animal Behaviour 76 (6): 1885-1892.
doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.08.015
3) Versacec E, Regolin L, Vallortigara G (2006) Emergence of Grammar as Revealed by Visual Imprinting in Newly-hatched Chicks. In: The Evolution of Language. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference, Rome, 12-15 April. pp 457–458
2) Versace E, Morgante M, Pulina G, Vallortigara G (2007) Behavioural lateralization in sheep (Ovis aries). Behavioural Brain Research 184: 72-80
1) Morgante M, Gianesella M, Stelletta C, Versace E, Cannizzo C, Ravarotto L, Vallortigara G (2007) Short-term adaptive response in strongly versus weakly lateralized dairy ewes. Italian Journal of Animal Science 6: 567-569
Pre-prints under review and other publications
Wang C, Benetos E, Wang S, Versace E (2021) Joint Scattering for Automatic Chick call Recognition. arXiv preprint, arXiv:2110.03965
Damini S, Stancher G, Versace E (2021) Recognition of familiar objects in tortoise hatchlings (Testudo spp) doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.22.436430
Szabó E, Chiandetti C, Téglás E, Versace E, Csibra G, Kovács AM, Vallortigara G (2021), Young domestic chicks spontaneously represent the absence of objects, bioRxiv, doi:
https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.20.427266
Damini S, Stancher G, Versace E (2021) Recognition of familiar objects in tortoise hatchlings (Testudo spp.) doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.22.436430
Josserand M, Rosa-Salva O, Versace E, Lemaire BS (2021) Visual Field Analysis: a reliable method to score left-and right eye-use using automated tracking, bioRxiv, https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.08.443242
Versace E (2017) Precocial, in “Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior”, Jennifer Vonk and Todd Shackelford (eds), Springer, https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3- 319-47829-6_459-2
Vallortigara G, Versace E (2017) Imprinting, in “Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior”, Jennifer Vonk and Todd Shackelford (eds), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1989-1 Versace E (2016) How fruit flies colonize the world, in “Animal Flatmates: Deep into their Mind”, Rachele Malavasi (ed), Smashwords
Versace E (2016) Il punto di vista del moscerino, in “ThinkAnimal – Il mondo visto dagli animali non-umani”, Rachele Malavasi (ed), StudioVerde Edizioni
Editorial roles
2020-present: Review Editor in Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience – Learning and Memory 2019-present: Editorial Board member for Scientific Reports
2019-present: Review Editor for Frontiers in Psychology
Reviewer for:
The American Naturalist, Animal Behaviour, Animal Cognition, Animals, Behavioural Processes, Biological Reviews, Communications Biology, Current Biology, European Journal of Neuroscience, Frontiers in Psychology, Integrative Zoology, Journal of Comparative Psychology, Laterality, Learning & Behavior, Medical Problems of Performing Artists, Molecular Ecology, Molecular Neurobiology, Nature communications, PeerJ, Physical Biology, Plos Biology, Plos ONE, PNAS, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Scientific Reports, Symmetry, Vision Research Organization of scientific meetings
2019-ongoing: I am the lead organiser of the Departmental seminar series at the Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, and co-organiser of the School seminar series.
2019: 2nd International Workshop on Vocal Interactivity in-and-between Humans, Animals and Robots 29-30 August 2019, London, UK
2018: Conference Challenges in Data Science 2018, Institute of Applied Data Science, QMUL (UK)
2018: Workshop at the conference Evolang2018 “Artificial Grammar Learning: Implications of domain, modality and species differences”.
2015: Workshop “Insect Models of Behaviour: Ecology, Genetics, Evolution, Pest management”.
Rovereto (Italy), 4th September 2015
2006: Workshop “Scienze cognitive e linguaggio”, University of Trieste (Italy)
Consultancies
2020 L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women and Science 2019-present: Reviewer for BBSRC (UK)
2017: Referee for Evolang 2018, Torun (Poland)
2017: Referee for FONDECYT Regular 2017 grant competition, an initiative of the Chilean National Science and Technology Commission (CONICYT - Chile)
2017-present: Member of the Ethical Committee of the Museum of the City of Rovereto (TN), Italy 2016: Referee for the 2016 ISBE meeting, Exeter (UK)
2014-2016: Referee for CogEvo, workshop on Cognition and Evolution, University of Trento
Teaching experience since my appointment as lecturer
Module organiser: Psychology research project PSY600; Comparative Psychology PSY235
Module conveyor: Essential skills for Psychology PSY100; Animal Behaviour and Cognition PSY315; Diversity and Ecology SEF033; PSY209 Research Methods
Administrative roles
2021-present: Leader of the undergraduate Equality, Diversity and Inclusion workgroup for the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences
2020-present: Organiser of the seminar series for the Department of Biological and experimental Psychology and Co-organiser of the seminar series for the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences
Participation at conferences and scientific meetings
September 2021: Invited speaker at “UK-Japan Students Conference 2021”
January 2021: Poster at “From Neuroscience to Artificially Intelligent Systems (NAISys)”, ColdSpring Harbor
August 2019: Poster at the Gordon conference on “Neuroethology”, Mount Snow (VT), USA July 2019: Poster award at 2019 CogEvo workshop, University of Trento (Italy)
June 2019: Invited speaker at “Kinds of intelligence 2.0”, 19-21 June, University of Cambridge.
‘Priors in Animal and Artificial Intelligence: Where does Learning Begin?’
June 2019: Invited speaker at IBM symposium: Women in technology, Queen Mary University of London
January 2019: DeepLabCut Workshop, Rowland Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge (USA) March 2019: Invited speaker at University of Lincoln
March 2019: Invited seminar speaker at Roehampton University
February 2019: Invited speaker at the Psychology seminar series at the University of Cambridge 2018: Invited speaker at Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics, 7 September 2018: “Social cognition before social life: Insights from precocial species.”
2018: Speaker at workshop “Artificial Grammar Learning: Implications of domain, modality, species differences”, April 2018, Torun (Poland). “Artificial grammars in visual modality: A comparative
perspective”.
2017: Speaker at Behavior 2017, 30 July-4th August, Estoril (Portugal). “Genes and light affect social interactions in fruit flies” and “Social predispositions at birth”.
2017: Speaker at Italian Evolutionary Biology Society meeting 28-31 August 2017, Rome (Italy).
“Genes and light affect social interactions in fruit fly dyads”.
2017: Speaker at the meeting “Learning & Memory: A synthesis of bees and flies”, Aspet (France).
“Social context and genetics affect social behaviour in Drosophila”.
2017: Speaker at the Mind Brain and Behavior Retreat, Norton’s Woods Conference Center, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge (USA). “Doing in right… or left. The social and genetic roots of lateralization”.
2016: Poster at Early Experience and Sensitive Periods in Development Workshop, Ettore Majorana Foundation and International Centre for Scientific Culture, Erice (Italy). “Pattern generalization in young chicks”.
2106: Posters at Rovereto workshop on Cognition and Evolution (CogEvo), University of Trento (Italy). “Chicken breed variability in social predispositions”; “Generalization of abstract patterns in chicks”.
2016: Poster at Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development. “Do chicks prefer social partners with a gut?”.
2016: Speaker at the Behavioural Ecology Meeting, Chioggia (Italy). “Olfactory-driven responses in two human commensal species: Drosophila suzukii and Drosophila melanogaster”.
2015: Invited speaker at the Italian Society for Evolutionary Biology Congress, 31 August-3 September 2015, Bologna (Italy) “Olfactory responses in two human commensal species: Drosophila suzukii and Drosophila melanogaster”.
2014: Speaker at Trieste Symposium on Perception and Cognition. “Preferences for Hollow vs. Filled Social Partners in Domestic Chicks”.
2014: Poster at Rovereto workshop on Cognition and Evolution (CogEvo), University of Trento (Italy). “Preferences for hollow vs. filled social partners in young domestic chicks”.
2014: Poster at the 11th International Society for Neuroethology Conference, University of Sapporo (Japan). “Preferences for hollow vs. filled social partners in young domestic chicks”.
2014: Speaker at Think Animal, Piazzola sul Brenta (Italy). “The extraordinary world of the fruit fly”.
2013: Poster at XVI ESEB Congress, Lisbon (Portugal). “Experimental evolution uncovers environment dependent fitness differences among Wolbachia strains in Drosophila melanogaster”.
2013: Talk at SIBE Congress, Trento (Italy). “Experimental evolution uncovers habitat-dependent fitness dynamics among Wolbachia strains in Drosophila melanogaster”.
2012: Poster at BBSRC Summer School, University of Nottingham (UK) “The evolution of learning in Drosophila”.
2012: Poster at the Conference Animal Cognition – Behavioral Studies and the Theory Formation, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany). “How cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) encode the positional rule A(X)nB”.
2011: Talk at CNRS Gif-sur-Yvette (France). “Processing regularities: a computational hierarchy across species”.
2011: Talk at Department of ecology and evolution, University of Lausanne (Switzerland).
“Processing regularities: a possible computational hierarchy”.
2008: Poster at Rovereto workshop on Cognition and Evolution (CogEvo), University of Trento (Italy). “Computational capabilities in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus)”.
2007: Talk at Kanizsa symposium, University of Trieste (Italy). “Computational capabilities in cotton top tamarins”.
2007: Talk at the Italian Animal Husbandry symposium 2007, Foggia (Italy). “Behavioral lateralization in sheep”.
2007: Poster at Symposium in honour of Marica De Vincenzi 2007, University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy). “Computational capabilities in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus)”.
2005: Poster at Kanizsa symposium, University of Trieste (Italy). “Syntax, imprinting and chicks (Gallus gallus)”.
2005: Invited speaker at 7th Alps-Adria Psychology Conference, Department of Psychology, University of Zadar (Croatia): “What it means to be human”: Thoughts and views on psychology and evolution.
