Sarah Kappel
Post-Doctoral Fellow
About
My scientific focus is the development and validation of cognitive, behavioral, and physiological methods for measuring animal emotional states. I completed a Master’s by Research degree at the University of Bristol (UK) in 2016 where I first gained comprehensive insights into the assessment of dairy cow welfare. I joined the AWP and DERC as an intern in the summer of 2016, which gave me the great opportunity of getting hands-on experience in dairy cow care and being involved in different research projects (e.g. investigating personality traits and social preferences in dairy calves). I also met some incredible researchers who have become my mentors and friends. Since then, I have conducted research on the links between animal emotions and cognition in companion (shelter dogs), laboratory animals (rats, mice) and farm animals (cows, horses). For my PhD, I investigated the use of novel cognitive (attention bias) and physiological (heart rate variability) measures of underlying emotional state in horses.
Joining in November 2023, I’m excited to return to the AWP as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow.
Education & Awards
MRes, University of Bristol, UK
PhD, University of Plymouth, UK