Qualified trainers

Dr. Fabrizio Grieco is a behavioral biologist and has extensive experience in the study of animal behavior. He published in several fields of research from behavioral ecology to human-animal relationships (see his publications). In 2001 he joined the company a documentation specialist and is now a behavioral research consultant. His expertise includes video analysis, reliability analysis of observational data, statistics, and video tracking in 3D.

Jason Rogers is the Application Specialist for the North American office. He received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Utah in 2005.  Prior to joining Noldus in 2008, he was a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Medical University of South Carolina, designing and testing translational models of drug relapse. He has a thorough understanding of behavioral paradigms in rodents, neuropsychopharmacology, and philosophy of science. In addition, Jason has taught several university courses, volunteered at primary & secondary schools, and mentored numerous Honors Thesis students.

Dr. Leanne Loijens has a background in behavioral neuroscience. After obtaining her Ph.D. degree she worked as a researcher at the University Medical Center Utrecht (The Netherlands). In 2003 she started at Noldus Information Technology as a documentation specialist and trainer and is now a behavioral research consultant. She was the project leader of the Inside Consumer Experience project (www.ice-project.org), one of the research projects in which Noldus is involved. Dr. Loijens has extensive experience in giving trainings both in the field of human and animal behavior research.

Dr. Andrew Spink is the head of Services at Noldus Information Technology. As such he is responsible for the provision of information about how to use Noldus’ tools for behavioral research to scientists worldwide. He heads a department which provides training courses, consultancy, support and documentation to Noldus’ customers. Dr. Spink is one of Noldus’ most experienced trainers and has instructed scientists in the use of Noldus’ tools for behavioral research in many different countries and for many different applications. Before joining Noldus he had extensive experience of carrying our research in several different countries including England, Scotland, The Netherlands, and the United States.

Tobias Heffelaar received a M.Sc. in social science information technology from the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). Since 1998 he has been working for Noldus Information Technology as a usability engineer, trainer, and consultant. He has extensive experience in setting up software and hardware tools for Human-Computer Interaction research and usability testing, and training users.

Patrick Zimmerman is a behavioral biologist with extensive experience in the study of animal learning, behavior, and welfare. He obtained his PhD at Wageningen University (The Netherlands) after which he moved to the UK to work as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Bristol. Since 2005 he is a documentation specialist and trainer at Noldus Information Technology. His expertise includes behavior analysis, integration of behavioral and physiological data, and gait analysis in rodents.

Olga Krips is a behavioral ecologist and is specialized in entomology. She obtained her PhD at Wageningen University (The Netherlands) in the field of sustainable pest management. She used both The Observer and EthoVision to study the behavior of the pest species and their natural enemies in great detail. Subsequently, she worked several years in communications. She joined Noldus in 2009 as a documentation specialist and is now a behavioral research consultant. She has extensive experience in didactics and gives trainings for both human and animal behavioral research.

Dr. Matthew Maga is an Applications Specialist for the North American office.  He received his Ph.D. in Psychology (Behavioral Neuroscience) from UCLA in 2009. His work focused on uncovering the molecular and neuroanatomical substrates of reward-motivated behavior, relevant to the fields of addiction neuroscience and opioid pharmacology. He has expertise with behavioral methodologies, as well as extensive teaching experience.