Dave got his B.A. in Neuroscience from Franklin & Marshall College in 2004, where he worked with rats, capuchins, and macaque monkeys. He then completed an M.A. (2006) and Ph.D. (2010) at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied in Aaron Blaisdell’s Comparative Cognition Lab examining the control of behavioral variability. After receiving his Ph.D. he spent three years teaching and doing research at UCLA, working with rats, pigeons, and hermit crabs. In 2012, he received a tenure-track appointment at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA, where he is now a Professor of Psychological Science.
He teaches courses in learning, neuroscience, and research methods, and runs his department’s animal research laboratory with its invertebrate and rat vivaria. He is interested in and has published work on basic behavioral processes. He has also published work on theoretical and philosophical matters, specifically as regards Skinnerian radical behaviorism, to which he was a convert after leaving UCLA. He’d like to think he’s known around his department as a friendly killjoy.
Off-campus, he enjoys Chicago Cubs baseball, going to the movies, and homebrewing odd and time-intensive beers.
