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CHES Undergraduate Affiliate Alumnus, John, or as he's known among us here, JP Calcitrai (Rutgers Class of 2018) was just admitted to the PhD Program in Animal Behavior at the University of California, Davis. JP will commence his PhD career next Fall, working under the supervision of Jeff Schank in the Psychology Department. JP is interested in better understanding the evolution of complex social systems. He will combine the computational methods used by Schank's lab with a field-based approach inspired, in part, by his participation in two field schools run by CHES faculty, the Primatology, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation in Kenya (the source of this photo of JP with a local nonhuman inhabitant) and the Primates, Ecology, and Conservation in Indonesia. While he was here at Rutgers, JP was a recipient of the CHES Barry C. Lembersky Undergraduate Research Award to support his Senior Honors Thesis Research on "Stress and Sociality in Wild Bornean Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii). Congratulations JP!
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CHES Graduate Affiliate Alex Pritchard passed his doctoral dissertation defense today. Alex's dissertation "Variation of Stress Coping in a Socially Complex Primate" is based on his field research on olive baboons (Papio anubis) he conducted for 18 months at the Project Papio Research Site in Kenya, followed by laboratory analyses he conducted at SUNY Stony Brook and Rutgers. Alex's study was a wide-ranging investigation involving carefully designed, noninvasive field experiments to characterize variation in "coping style" in adult baboons, systematic measurement of behavior, social network analysis, and collection and analysis of fecal glucocorticoid samples. Alex's insightful work improves our understanding of the interplay of "personality" dimensions (e.g., coping style and stress reactivity), but, unlike most previous research in Animal Behavior, on a species of primate characterized by significant social complexity. The members of his committee were, starting from Alex's image in the center of the photo, and moving clockwise: Ryne Palombit (Dissertation Committee Chair, and Director of Project Papio in Kenya), Erin Vogel (Director of the Laboratory for Primate Dietary Ecology and Physiology, where Alex performed some of his hormonal analyses), Susan Cachel, and Alecia Carter (outside committee member from University College, London). Congratulations, Alex!
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Today, Curtis Marean gave the first lecture in the CHES Lecture Series for this semester. Dr. Marean's presentation was entitled, "A General Model for the Paleoecology of the Now Submerged Palaeo-Agulhas Plain, An Extinct Ecosystem Crucial to Modern Human Origins," based upon this many years of research in Africa. Dr. Marean's research addresses not only ecological questions about human evolution, such as the shift toward exploitation of reliable resources in a marine coastal context about 110,000 years ago, but also the origins of the "hyperprosocial" tendencies that define humans and distinguishes them from other creatures.
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CHES Alumna Dr. Mareike Janiak (2018) is a coauthor of a newly published study using genomics to better understand the ecology and life history of primates. Compared to other mammals, nonhuman (as well as human) primates are characterized by especially pronounced longevity, brain size and dietary flexibility. The reasons for this interesting constellation of traits remains a topic of intensive study and debate. Through genetic, physiological, and genetic data collected on wild white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus imitator) of Costa Rica, the team of which Dr. Mareike is a part, has shed some new light on this discussion. Interested in reading more? Check out the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America!
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CHES Faculty Member Dr. Liping Zhao has developed an early treatment that will aid in preventing complications resulting from COVID19 infection. The formula has approval from the FDA for clinical trials commencing this month. To read more about Dr. Zhao's work, please check out: https://www.rutgers.edu/news/rutgers-researcher-invents-microbiota-formula-help-high-risk-patients-fight-covid-19
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CHES Almunus Dr. Stan Kivai (2018), who earlier this summer received an award from the International Primatological Society has just won another prestigious award! Dr. Kivai is the recipient of the American Society of Primatologists Conservationist Award of the Year 2020. as the ASP Conservation Committee put it in their announcement to Dr. Kivai, "The committee was humbled by the contributions that all the nominees are making to primate conservation. Your work stood out as truly exceptional and your approach to conservation training, research and outreach was described as passionate and tireless. Congratulations Dr. Kivai!
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CHES faculty member Dr. Lee Cronk and his collaborator, former CHES Associate Member Dr. Carolyn Townsend, have just published an important paper on generosity in humans. Drs. Cronk and Townsend have studied the Ik people of Uganda (the photo shows Cronk and Townsend in the field in Uganda). Published in the journal Evolutionary Human Sciences, their new data and analyses challenge some of the conclusions of previous research on the Ik, who were once viewed by some Anthropologists of the 1970s as "selfish" and "uncooperative." Cronk and Townsend's study not only reveals significant cooperation within this culture, but underscores the more general conclusion that humans are "remarkably cooperative.
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CHES alumnus, Dr. Stan Kivai (2018) has received the prestigious Charles Southwick Conservation Education Commitment Award from the International Primatological Society. Besides the distinction of honoring Stan and his work, the award also provides financial support for a conservation project of his choosing in Kenya. Stan is Head of the Conservation Biology Department at the Institute of Primate Research in Nairobi, Kenya.
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FOUR CHES Undergraduate Affiliates today presented their Senior Honors Thesis research in a special symposium at the Department of Anthropology:
- Rohan Alibutud: "Prioritization of Autism Candidate Genes from Whole-Genome Sequences of Affected Families." Rohan's research on an immense genetic database has helped to identify autosomal genes that may be implicated the expression and diagnosis of the Autism Spectrum Disorder.
- Matt Baldes: "Area 116 and the Burgi Unconformity." Matt trekked off to Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya in order to do this work clarifying the geology of a previously unmapped region Iin the Koobi Fora Formation, which has has yielded forth many important fossil discoveries about human evolution.
- Olivia Boss, "Comparative Dental Microwear Textural Analysis: Pitheciines, Alouatta, and Ateles." Olivia carefully investigate the teeth of preserved specimens of New World Monkeys kept at the American Museum of Natural History (New York City), shedding light on the relationship between the physical properties of foods (especially toughness" and patterns of microwear on teeth.
- Frank Short, "An Investigation of Orangutan Bimaturism through Continuous-Time Movement Modeling;" Using continuous-time movement modeling on a data set of wild orangutan ranging behavior from Borneo, Frank tested the hypothesis that two known forms, or "morphs" of adult male orangutans—one large, one smaller—are associated with different patterns of movements that are ultimately linked to different mating strategies.
Congrats to all four CHES Undergrads for these impressive research and scholarly achievements!. And special kudos must go to Rohan, Matt, and Olivia who were received the special recognition of being named "Henry Rutgers Scholars" by Rutgers, along with only 48 other undergraduates across the entire University this year!
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CHES Faculty member Jinchuan Xing is one of this year's recipients of the Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research. Jin is doing exciting research in genetics and evolutionary questions, some of which he presented in a CHES Featured Research Evening. Congratulations, Jin!