Based at the FD McMaster Laboratory in Armidale, NSW, Dr Caroline Lee’s research focuses on understanding animal learning and cognition to improve the welfare of livestock.
Current activities
Dr Caroline Lee has been part of the CSIRO livestock welfare team since its establishment in 2002.
The team works to develop objective measures of welfare, to improve husbandry practices and to advance understanding of the biological components of adaptation in livestock.
Dr Lee is working to understand the cognitive and learning capacity of livestock to improve animal welfare. Her work has been extensively featured in television, radio and print media as well as in scientific journals.
Her research topics include:
Background
Dr Lee has worked with CSIRO since 2002, following roles in research and research management in the Australian livestock industries.
Dr Lee is trying to gain a greater understanding of the cognitive abilities of animals to allow the assessment of their emotive state. She has studied stress physiology and behaviour of pigs, sheep and cattle, to improve productivity and welfare.
Academic qualifications
Dr Lee was awarded a Bachelor of Agricultural Science with Honours from the University of Sydney, NSW, Australia, in 1997.
She was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy, also from the University of Sydney, in 2002. Her thesis was on the effect of environmental and social stressors on physiology and behaviour in pigs.
Achievements
Dr Lee is an adjunct lecturer at The University of New England, Armidale, NSW, and supervises several students in behaviour and welfare related research.
Dr Lee also:
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was a finalist in 2005 in Fresh Science, a national competition that selects young scientists from across Australia to present their research to the media and the public
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received a Postdoctoral award in 2004 to work on a collaborative project with the adaptive behaviour and welfare of ruminants group at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA)
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received the James S Ashton Travel Scholarship in 1998, a scholarship awarded to a young researcher from the University of Sydney
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received, in 1996, the James S Ashton Memorial Scholarship, which was open to Fourth Year students in the Bachelor of Animal and Veterinary Bioscience and Bachelor of Science in Agriculture streams at the University of Sydney.
Learn more about CSIRO's work in Adapted and contented livestock.
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