Professor Berg joined the Department of Computer Science, Math & Science at the American University of Paris in January of 2014. She is a broadly trained evolutionary biologist interested in multidisciplinary questions about how behavior, morphology, life history, and genetics vary across different environments and spatial scales. After receiving her Master’s degree in Biological Anthropology from Cambridge University, Berg went on to pursue a PhD in Animal Behavior. Her doctoral research at the University of California at Davis focused on the evolution of cooperative breeding behavior in the white-throated magpie-jay, a highly gregarious Central American bird. As a postdoc at UCLA, Portland State University, Harvard University, and Uppsala University in Sweden, she explored a diversity of topics, including the evolution of eggshell speckling and coloration in birds, the population genetic structure of both migratory and non-migratory North American songbirds, the phylogenetic history of cooperative breeding in New World jays, and sexual conflict and aging in seed beetles. Between postdocs, Berg also spent a year coordinating the graduate program for Evolution, Ecology and Systematics at the University of Munich. As a professor at AUP, she is continuing her research on the behavior and life history of seed beetles. With the help of AUP students, Berg and colleague Professor Claudio Piani are currently conducting a long-term experiment investigating the adaptive capacity of seed beetles under projected changes in climate. Berg also conducts research on drinking water and the bottled water industry. She is a certified water sommelier and conducts taste tests with her students and other members of the AUP community.
Berg, E. C., J. E. McCormack, and T. B. Smith. 2009. "Test of an adaptive hypothesis for egg speckling along an elevational gradient in a population of Mexican jays (Aphelocoma ultramarina)". Journal of Avian Biology 40(4): 448-452.
*AUP undergraduate student