Steven Viscido

Biography

Dr. Viscido began his scientific career as an undergraduate biology major at Rutgers University. There, he received a thorough grounding in the broad discipline of biology, and fell in love with marine ecology as a primary field of interest. After graduating from one campus of Rutgers (Newark), he was accepted into the Master's program of another campus (Camden).

In Camden, Dr. Viscido studied population biology in marine crustaceans (shrimp and crabs) off the coast of New Jersey under the guidance of invertebrate zoologist Don Stearns, and he completed his M.S. degree in 1994. He then was accepted into the PhD program at the University of South Carolina, again planning to study marine ecology.

However, during his early PhD work, Dr. Viscido noticed the interesting social behavior of fiddler crabs, and eventually focused his studies on their group-defense behavior against predatory birds. This led Dr. Viscido down the path of studying animal social behavior, which has become the focus of his research. He subsequently studied fish schooling behavior with Dr. Julia Parrish at the University of Washington, before being hired by WSSU as a professor of Organismal Biology.

Currently, Dr. Viscido has continued to study animal social behavior. He has moved his research from field work into the lab, where he uses an array of performance computers to modify the social behavior of animals. His research papers on animal social behavior have appeared in many top journals, including the Journal of Theoretical Biology, Ecological Modelling, and Animal Behavior.

To view Dr. Viscido's current research, check his profile on Research Gate.

Educational Background

PhD, 2000, University of South Carolina
MS, 1994, Rutgers University
BA, 1991, Rutgers University

Research and Project Interests

Animal Behavior
Behavioral Ecology

* View a complete list of Steven Viscido's publications.

Viscido, S.V. and S. Shrestha. 2015. Using quantitative methods of determining group membership to draw biological conclusions. Animal Behavior, in press.

Viscido, S.V. and E.E. Holmes. 2010. LAMBDA: A software tool for statistical modeling of communities and ecosystems. Environmental Modelling and Software, 25: 1905-1908.

Viscido, S. V., D. Grünbaum, and J. K. Parrish. 2007. What factors are important for the formation and maintenance of fish schools? Ecological Modelling, 206: 153-165.

Reluga, T., S. V. Viscido. 2005. Simulated evolution of selfish herd behavior. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 234:213-235.

Viscido, S. V. and D. S Wethey. 2002. Quantitative analysis of fiddler crab flock movement: evidence for "selfish herd" behavior. Animal Behavior, 63: 735-741.

Dr. Viscido is currently conducting federally funded research in the CAREER program of the National Science Foundation. Dr. Viscido's grant focuses on the study of animal social behavior via computer modeling and attempts to combine different approaches in the modeling literature into a single framework. The computer program used to accomplish this research is written in Object Oriented MATLAB. The grant also provides funds to train minority students in the field of animal behavior and eventually will help produce a freshman Liberal Learning Seminar in animal behavior. More information can be found on the Animal Behavior Project's website.

Each semester, Dr. Viscido has the funds to hire two students to work in the lab. These students can either assist with computer modeling or use video tracking to compare computer models to video recordings of live animals. Each semester, one of the students will have the option of working at the Center for Design Innovation, located just up the street from WSSU, to study bat social behavior with Dr. Nick Hristov.

Students interested in working in Dr. Viscido's lab should contact him in his office (WBA 403) or by e-mail (viscidost@wssu.edu).

Undergraduate Non-Major Courses

BIO 1101 - Biological Concepts Lab

BIO 1320 - Environmental Biology

BIO 1301 - Biological Concepts

Undergraduate Major Courses

BIO 2303 - Scientific Writing (Spring terms)

BIO 3336 - Developmental Biology (alternate Fall terms)

BIO 3136 - Developmental Biology Lab (alternate Fall terms)

BIO 3371 - Ecology and Evolution (alternate Fall terms)

Many students have conducted animal behavior research with Dr. Viscido. The following is a list of those students who have worked in Dr. Viscido's lab since 2007.

Present Research Students

Jenniffer Riley (in collaboration with Dr. Nick Hristov)*

Past Research Students

Anissa Kennedy *

Bianca Smith *

Keiyana Hamlet *

Winston Hill *

Shynequa Lea *

Bridgette Parks *

Brittani George (in collaboration with Dr. Nick Hristov) *

Asha Barnes

Kelly Newsome

Tiarra Ogletree

Carina Johnson

Amanda Lee +

Alyson Anthony +

Christine Dean +

Erica Patterson

Dana Collins

* denotes the student was supported by NSF grant IOS-1149302

+ denotes the student was supported by the WSSU SURE program