Andrew Hein

Andrew Hein is a theoretical and computational biologist working at the interface between behavior, ecology, and neurobiology. His lab studies how organisms acquire, share, process, and respond to information, and how these responses influence behavioral evolution, rates of ecological interactions, and the dynamics of ecosystems. The lab uses a mix of data-driven computational models and theory that is closely tied to data from laboratory and field experiments. Another major focus of the lab is extending modern methods from artificial intelligence to transform how behavioral and ecological data are acquired in the lab and field. Hein completed his PhD in theoretical and computational biology at the University of Florida, where he worked with Jamie Gillooly (Biology) and Scott McKinley (Mathematics). He was then a James S. McDonnell postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University with Simon Levin and Iain Couzin. From 2016-2022 he served as founding director of the Ecology of Information Lab based jointly at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Santa Cruz Laboratory and UC Santa Cruz’ Institute of Marine Sciences.