Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)

PhD Student
Advisor: Erin Vogel 
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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I am interested in how the need to find and acquire food has influenced primate evolution and in particular how primates interact with their plant food resources. I received my BA in anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2013. At UCSC I aided in research on comparative primate anatomy by dissecting monkeys and apes and also discovered a love for fieldwork while researching the feeding ecology of howling monkeys on Ometepe Island in Nicaragua. After graduating I did research on vervet monkey foraging behavior and spatial cognition in Uganda before returning to UCSC for a few years to teach human anatomy labs. I received my MA at Iowa State University and focused my thesis on seed dispersal by savanna-dwelling chimpanzees at Fongoli, Senegal. Outside of my academic life I am an avid skateboarder that also enjoys climbing and photography.

PhD Student
Advisor: Erin Vogel  
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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Research Interest: My general research interests include primate nutrition, health/disease and energetics, at both ecological and evolutionary scales. I am also interested in how these factors shaped hominin evolution. My specific research interests focus on the intersections between gut microbiota and energetics, nutrition, and health in wild Bornean orangutans. 

Masters Student
Advisor: Victoria Ramenzoni
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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The main question I ask is, why do primates do the things they do? I received my B.A. degree in anthropology from Montclair State University. My research interests are quite broad, but revolve around the social behavior and ecology of primates, as well as human-animal interactions. During my undergraduate education, I completed distance sampling and behavioral monitoring programs of wildlife and livestock, and for my thesis, I researched the motivations for interspecies interactions between captive siamangs and orangutans at the San Diego Zoo, with the intention of finding if these interactions reduce stress in either species. I also wrote an American Society of Primatologists (ASP) grant for future field research on the symbiotic relationship between Geoffroy's spider monkeys and birds at Parque Nacional Corcovado, Costa Rica, as part of my independent study. I wrote a research paper focused on the complex cultural, human health, and conservation aspects of traditional primate hunting in South America, and I am currently collaborating with several other authors, as a co-author, for an upcoming paper on bird hunting and ecology. Further, I have acquired grant funding for my upcoming fieldwork on the platyrrhines of Costa Rica. During my final undergraduate semester, I strongly advocated to increase the primatology curriculum at MSU, which allowed the college to begin offering formal primatology courses. Many primates are threatened with extinction. Understanding how their social behavior, reproduction, and diets are adapting to environmental change and human conflict, is essential, not only for anthropology, but also for effective primate conservation. I am highly committed to strengthening my understanding of primate behavior, as well as contributing to primate conservation efforts.

PhD Student
Advisor: Christina Bergey
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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Research interests: Lemur evolution and adaptive radiation, evolutionary genetics, population genetics, ecological impacts on evolution

I am interested in understanding how ecological variables shaped the genetic evolution of lemurs after they arrived on Madagascar. I earned my B.A. in Anthropology from Boston University in 2020. My undergraduate research used phylogenetic methods to understand the evolution of the vomeronasal system (the chemosensory system that detects pheromones) in primates. Through this research, I became interested in lemurs specifically, and how their olfactory systems evolved differently from the rest of the primate clade. For my PhD research I want to further investigate the genetic evolution of these unique primates in order to better understand how they adapted to fill a variety of niches they encountered on Madagascar. I also hope to contribute to the conservation of lemurs through my research because they are the most endangered group of mammals on Earth. 

PhD student
Advisor: Gloria Dominguez Bello/Erin Vogel
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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Research Interests: Primates, Behavioural ecology, Feeding ecology, Health, Nutrition, Metagenomics

The basic question I ask, how primates survive the way they do - requires an understanding of different aspects of, health and behavior ecology that is modulated by environment and diet. By, integrating observational and experimental techniques from evolutionary biology, nutrition, microbiology, and metagenomics, I hope to pursue a richer understanding of primate behavior. The fascinating differentiation of dietary flexibility and behavioral plasticity in urban primates in comparison to forest-dwelling primates is of particular interest to me and will be my research focus. I received my Masters from the University of Pune, India. After this, I worked on a variety of different primate studies answering questions of feeding ecology, primate conservation, primate landscape ecology, human-primate co-existence. A kinesthetic learner, hoping for primate conservation by promoting coexistence.

PhD Student
Advisor: Dan Cabanes
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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Research Interests: microarchaeology and taphonomy; dietary and technological changes in archaeological record; effects of heat on bone

I received a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in May of 2019. My undergraduate research focused on understanding how the surface of bone is altered by fire and other taphonomic processes. This research led to a poster presentation at the 2019 Society for American Archaeology meeting. That poster explored how the quantification of surface roughness may aid in the identification of burnt and weathered bone in the archaeological record.  My senior thesis expanded on this research by investigating how the surface roughness of White Tailed Deer ribs were affected by repeated heating events. At Rutgers, I would like to expand on this research, as well as look at other macro- and micro-scale effects of heat on bone. My broader research interests include using a combination of microarchaeology and taphonomy to understand how we can track major dietary and technological changes in the archaeological record. In my free time, I enjoy exploring museums, reading, and finding the best slice of cake in the world.

PhD Student
Advisor: Ryne Palombit
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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Research Interests: primate behavior ecology, conservation, social behaviors, and their interactions with humans

I hold a BSc degree in Environmental Conservation and Natural Resource Management and a MSc degree in Biology of Conservation from the University of Nairobi. My research focused on the implications of forest fragmentation and human activities on plant foods and behavior of the Tana River Mangabey. Previous research has been aimed at monitoring the feeding behavior and habitat loss of the Tana River mangabey and the Tana River Red colobus. Also, I have been engaged in assessing the utilization of forest products by the local community and their impact on the highly endangered Tana River mangabey. In the future, I aim to contribute to the conservation of primates by understanding their interactions with the human in their habitat as well as inform local communities.

PhD Student
Advisor: Erin Vogel
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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Research Interests: primates, diet plasticity, stable isotope analysis (SIA), anthropogenic/climate-induced habitat change

I am interested in how primates dietarily adapt to climate and anthropogenic-induced habitat loss using stable isotope analysis.
I received my B.A. in Anthropology and Geological Sciences at the University of Miami in 2017. My undergraduate thesis Geochemical analysis of Tequesta calcretes (Mann et al 2019) focused on the isotopic geoarchaeology of a settlement in Downtown Miami, previously occupied by the Tequesta population (pre/proto-historic indigenous group of South Florida), to better understand the paleoenvironment of the site before and after Spanish arrival. I received my M.A. in Anthropology/Human Skeletal Biology in New York University in 2020 and focused my thesis on the isotopic diet of the Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico rhesus macaques before and after Hurricane Maria’s deforestation of the island. As a doctoral student in Anthropology at Rutgers, I am interested in a holistic approach using multiple stable isotope techniques to answer questions on the nutritional consequences and fallback behaviors of the Bornean Orangutans influenced by the habitat-loss and fires in the peatlands of Borneo. As an underrepresented minority in the sciences, I am passionate about promoting and advocating for diversity and inclusion, in all the spaces around me. I aim to continue to do this through mentorship for underrepresented minorities, activism, and public/community outreach.

www.evammann.com

M.A.
Advisor: Dr. Lee Cronk
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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Research interests: human behavioral ecology, mutual aid, cooperation, generosity, human evolution, prosociality, cultural evolution, civic engagement, social justice

I initially earned my B.S. in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2015. I then worked in clinical mental health until 2022 when I joined the Anthropology program at Rutgers.

I am generally interested in the evolutionary basis of human cooperation and generosity. More specifically, I aim to consider how our evolved propensity for prosocial behavior may support mutual aid as a more efficient and effective crisis response (versus institutional/governmental response). I would also like to establish what types of conditions encourage a community response and how we could use this information to predict and therefore prepare the best course of action for disaster relief. At this time my plan is to compare and contrast several mutual aid groups that were created in response to recent crisis events within the United States ( ex: racial justice, reproductive justice, pandemic, environmental disaster).

PhD Student
Advisor: Lee Cronk
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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Research interests: human behavioral sciences, religion, cooperation theory, game theory, moral philosophy, cultural evolution

My dissertation fieldwork in Ifugao, Philippines looks broadly at how religious affiliation affects cooperative behavior, specifically with whom we cooperate and to what extent we do so. Rooted in cooperation theory, cultural evolution, and cognitive science, my work considers religious affiliation as a feature of our coalitional psychology and addresses the understudied property of flexibility in those coalitional affiliations. I received my B.A. in anthropology from Penn State and have previously participated in archaeology field schools in Luxor Valley, Egypt and Bicol, Philippines. Prior to joining Rutgers HES, I worked in the private sector in wealth management at Morgan Stanley.

PhD Student
Advisor: Lee Cronk
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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Stephen Meriki is a PhD student in Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES) Anthropology. He is broadly interested in exploring the evolution of land tenure systems in the context of pastoralism and their implications for their culture, livelihood and future among the Maasai people of Kenya. His empirical research focuses on the emerging phenomenon of private land ownership and effects on culture and pastoral activities in the face of land scarcity. His contention is that customary land tenure systems in Maasailand in Kenya have been evolving towards individualized land tenure security in a bid to respond to increasing scarcity of land and changes in Kenyan government land policies.

Prior to arriving at Rutgers, Stephen completed a BA (with 2nd Class Honors, Upper Division) at the Kenya’s Moi University, School of Arts and Social Sciences, where he focused on Cultural Studies. Outside of the university setting, Stephen was fortunate to be accepted into an internship program, and later served in both private, non-governmental and government organizations. From his experience, he was able to fully grasp how to translate theoretical anthropology into a practical science that is applicable in day-to-day problems. Specifically, his time at the Enaitoti Narok County/USAID-APHIAplus Orphans & Vulnerable Children (OVC) project (a non-governmental and reputable organization in Kenya) proved instrumental in teaching him how to use current techniques, skills, and tools necessary for computing practice. Also, as a student of Cultural Studies, he had diligently served in the Narok County Government as a Chief Officer for Environment and Natural Resources and later Chief Officer Public Health and Sanitation.

PhD
Advisor: Dan Cabanes
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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Research interests: Paleoethnobotany; Mesoamerican/Amazonian archaeology; Epigraphy; Archaeological reconnaissance; Remote sensing; Regional settlement demography; Human evolution

My greatest interest in archaeology is understanding the behavior of early mobile foraging groups and how they interacted with their surrounding environment. I received my B.A. and M.A. in Archaeology from Boston University in 2021. For my master’s research, I worked with the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project at the Preclassic Maya site of Cahal Pech as a field supervisor and paleoethnobotanist. During the 2019 field season, I constructed and operated the project’s first manual bilge pump flotation machine while assisting with daily excavations. The macrobotanical samples collected with the flotation machine and the soil samples collected for phytolith analysis were sent back to the Boston University Environmental Archaeology Laboratory where I spent the remainder of my graduate program analyzing each sample. At its core, my master’s research sought to elicit the methodological techniques necessary to utilize paleoethnobotanical markers as indicators for early and transitioning subsistence economies.

Upon graduating, I began working in the field of cultural resource management as a field archaeologist in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. I currently work as a crew chief and project archaeologist for a local heritage management firm. My doctoral research at Rutgers will focus on a comparative phytolith analysis between the Middle Paleolithic sites of El Salt and Abric del Pastor in Alcoi, Spain. My dissertation will engage the question of whether phytolith assemblages can be used as a proxy for the use and accessibility of certain plant species between different Middle Paleolithic sites in the same environmental region.

PhD Student
Advisor: Ryne Palombit
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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I am using experimental measures to quantify inter-individual variation in the stress response, as understood via thumbnail Heatmapthe coping style and stress reactivity frameworks. I completed a 17 month field project on olive baboons in Laikipia, Kenya. In addition to conducting experiments, staff and I recorded behavioral data using focal animal follows, collected fecal samples for Glucocorticoid assays, and took daily GPS tracks. Finally, I conducted personality surveys of the monkeys and gathered genetic samples for subsequent work. My work is significant for understanding the social and evolutionary implications of individual differences, specifically in the relatively conserved stress response. Gaining insight into such variation in our closest ancestors provides an important baseline for elucidating shared elements of our own biology, divorced from the socio-cultural complexities intrinsic to our own species. You can follow me on Twitter @SwmngInAFshbwl.

My work is proudly funded with support from the: Center for Human Evolutionary Studies, Anthropology Department of Rutgers, National Science Foundation, Wenner-Gren Foundation, Sigma Xi, American Society of Primatologists, and American Society of Mammalogists. I aim to follow my current work by building on my dissertation experiences and developing additional experimental methodologies to parse out individual variation as well as social effects, preferably while retaining laboratory components.

PhD Student
Advisor: Dr. Christina Bergey
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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Research interests: Lemur ecology and evolution, parasites, infectious disease, and conservation

I graduated from Central Washington University in 2023 with my second MS. in Primate Behavior. My research focused on the relationship between the intestinal parasite burden and social contact behavior in Tibetan macaques in China. I also held my first MS. in Zoology at the University of Mahajanga in Madagascar. At that time, I did research about the morphology, ecology, and ectoparasites in two species of mouse lemurs (Golden brown and Grey mouse lemurs) in northwestern Madagascar. My two Masters inspired me to continue research focusing on parasites and infectious diseases in lemur ecology and conservation in Madagascar for my Ph.D.

PhD Student
Advisor: Dan Cabanes
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences
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Research Interests: Microarchaeology, Phytoliths, FTIR, Anatomically Modern Humans, Bronze Age, Iron Age, the Levant

I graduated with my B.A. in Anthropology at Rutgers University in Spring 2022 where I completed my senior thesis, Where’s the fire? Using FTIR to define occupation of Abrigo de la Boja. This research focused on using the mineralogical composition of profile sediments to determine the occupation intensity by Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans through anthropogenic modifications to the site as well as climactic conditions at Abrigo de La Boja, and Middle-Upper Paleolithic site in Murcia, Spain. As a PhD student, I plan on studying phytoliths from the site Tell es-Safi in Israel, as well as sites in the surrounding area. The aim of this research is to determine the ability of phytoliths to record human adaptation to climate change.

PhD student
Advisor: Erin Vogel
Program:  Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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Research interests: primates, orangutans, reproductive ecology, nutrition and energetics, conservation, science communication and outreach

I am an orangutan researcher and conservationist, broadly interested in the intersection of primate nutrition, energetics and reproduction. I received my BA in Anthropology from Boston University in 2018, and have been involved with orangutan research since 2016. During my undergraduate years I conducted research on orangutan nutrition, before spending a year in Gunung Palung National Park, Indonesia as a research assistant, studying orangutan parasitology and supporting the long-term research program. From 2019 to 2023 I worked as the Program and Development Coordinator for the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program, which has deepened my passion for community-led, landscape-level conservation and fieldwork in Indonesian Borneo! Now, at Rutgers, I plan to continue my research at both Gunung Palung and the Tuanan Orangutan Research Station, co-directed by my advisor, Dr. Erin Vogel. I aim to study the ways in which orangutan physiology varies across ecological conditions, and how this may impact reproductive ecology, and ultimately, the conservation of this critically endangered species.

PhD Student
Advisor: Robert Scott
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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I received my B.A. in Anthropology from Vanderbilt University in 2018. Much of my undergraduate research involved the dental microwear texture analysis of archaeological remains from the Wari Empire as well as modern capuchin monkeys from Costa Rica. Previously, I excavated early primate remains from the Bighorn Basin and early hominin remains from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. In the summer of 2019, I served as an intern for the Wyoming Dinosaur Center excavating dinosaur remains from the Morrison formation. As a doctoral candidate in Anthropology, I intend to focus my research on DMTA of non-human fossil primates to better understand primate dietary change in relation to climate change. Outside of academia, I am a diehard Mets, Jets and Islanders fan.

Research interests: DMTA of non-human fossil primates

PhD Student
Advisor: Robert Scott
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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I received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, and a Bachelor of Science in Entomology and Wildlife Ecology from the University of Delaware in 2017. During my time at the University of Delaware, I wrote a senior thesis on sex differences in the dental health of the prehistoric Tepe Hissar assemblage. I also worked in the Bee Behavior and Ecology Lab, studying the foraging behavior of honey bees, and helping to develop new pest management practices for beekeepers. My project focuses on human dietary adaptations during environmental shifts in the Pliocene and Plistocene, specifically looking at the development of microwear on enamel. I am interested in all questions related to the evolution of the hominin diet. I am also an avid science and environmental activist, participating in various demonstrations and activities during my time at the University of Delaware.

PhD Student
Advisor: Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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I hold a B.A. degree in anthropology from Stony Brook University. My research interests are in Forensic Biology and Osteology. Prior to joining the Rutgers Master Program in Anthropology, I engaged in several research projects about the influences of different genotype mutations on the volume and density in endochondral and intramembranous bones in mice. Specifically, one of my studies involved the B3glct gene mutant mice as compared to a non-mutant control group, exploring potential factors that contribute to various disease states. I also joined the Percival Lab and developed sophisticated skills in identifying individual osteological compartments from a sample model established by 3D micro CT scans. As a prospective Master student at Rutgers University, I am looking forward to developing my interests and conducting more research in the field of Osteology and Forensic Biology.

Research interests: Forensic Biology and Osteology

Masters Student
Advisor: Susan Cachel
Program: Human Evolutionary Sciences (HES)
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I received a B.A. in Anthropology and Biology from Grinnell College in 2019. During my time at Grinnell I received a holistic education in both disciplines but focused on their intersection. My main anthropological research at Grinnell looked at the way dominance hierarchies can be perceived in human social groups through dyadic interactions. I also spent a good deal of time working in one of the cell biology laboratories genetically transforming frog embryos and assessing subsequent changes in mitotic spindle formation. I am interested in tracking large-scale migrations through pathogenic evidence and have been looking into the Yamnaya people who originated in Ukraine approximately 5,000 years ago as a potential focus-group for my research.