In this special episode, created by one of our student podcast fellows, NYU student Jenny Jamison interviews Dr. Becca Franks,  Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at NYU.  How can we use research to improve the lives of animals and support a healthier planet? Jenny speaks with Dr. Franks about her journey from veterinary medicine hopeful to animal welfare researcher, how her focus on fish is changing the conservation landscape, and how we should shift our understanding and perspective of the natural world.

Dr. Becca Franks is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at New York University, where she is the Director of WATR-lab and Co-Director of the Wild Animal Welfare Program.  After earning a BA in Anthropology from New York University and a PhD in Psychology from Columbia University, she was a Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Animal Welfare Program at the University of British Columbia. Her research and teaching lie at the intersection of animal welfare science and environmental conservation, with a focus on animal behavior, aquatic animals, human-animal relationships, and quantitative methods. She has published over 70 scholarly articles, chapters, and commentaries driven by the core question: how can science contribute to ongoing efforts to repair human relationships with other animals and the rest of nature?

For a full transcript of this episode, please email career.communications@nyu.edu.