9423691 Hack This award is under the International Junior Investigator and Postdoctoral Fellows Program, which enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twelve months of research abroad at research centers of proven excellence. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twelve-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Mace A. Hack to work with Dr. Geoffrey A. Parker at the University of Liverpool on the theory of assessment and decision making by animals. Their collaboration will focus on the development of a new type of contest model based on repeated encounters between opponents, the primary goal being a better understanding of the strategies animals use to settle contests in a fitness optimizing manner. The second goal is for Dr. Hack to acquire the skills necessary to build complex game theoretic models which he may then apply to appropriate problems in future research. Decision making under conditions of uncertainty is not only fundamental to assessment during contests but is also critical in other behavioral contexts, including foraging optimally in a variable environment, selecting a mate of high quality and distinguishing reliable cooperators. ***
