Post Docs & Grad Students

Laura Brubaker-Wittman is a PhD candidate in the Biological Anthropology program at Boston University. She holds a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development and Policy Advocacy from the School for International Training. Her doctoral research focuses on the human-nonhuman primate interface by using the mixed methodology of ethnoprimatology, incorporating theories and techniques from cultural and biological anthropology. Specifically, her work asks questions about how orangutans and humans interact and co-exist in landscapes that have been shaped by human disturbance and what this means for orangutan health and behavior. Ultimately, she hopes her work can bring together science, conservation, and environmental justice to help protect orangutans and support local communities at the same time.

Email: laurabw@bu.edu

Zoe is a PhD candidate in Biological Anthropology at Boston University. She holds a bachelor’s degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from Tulane University. In addition to this, she has an extensive background in human and animal medicine, working as a CNA, EMT and in veterinary hospitals. She fell in love with the study of primatology while researching white-faced capuchin monkeys in Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica. When one particularly feisty capuchin pooped directly on her head, she had a ‘Newton and the apple’ moment which inspired her to utilize feces to study the gut microbiome of primates. Through the gut microbiome, she hopes to learn more about the effects of environment, diet and sociality on primate health, energetics and wellbeing. Her dissertation research will delve into the microbiome of wild Bornean Orangutans living in Gunung Palung National Park.

Email: zealbert@bu.edu

Frank is a third-year PhD student in Biological Anthropology. He received his Bachelor of Science in Evolutionary Anthropology at Rutgers University, where he did research on the movement ecology of unflanged and flanged male orangutans at the site of Tuanan in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. His interests lie in the utilization of novel and rapidly developing techniques to understand areas including sexual selection, foraging, and conservation. For his dissertation research, he hopes to implement methods within the fields of movement ecology and bioacoustics to investigate the behavior and ecology of orangutans as well as their unique habitat.

Email: fshort@bu.edu

Samantha Vee is a second-year PhD student in Biological Anthropology and is broadly interested in understanding how primates respond to anthropogenic changes, with the goal of informing conservation practices. More specifically, she hopes to learn and apply methods from genetics and endocrinology to study how human disturbance affects the health and fitness of the orangutan populations in Gunung Palung National Park. Prior to joining Boston University, Samantha received her B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from CUNY Macaulay Honors College at John Jay College. She also received her M.A. in Ecology and Evolution from Stony Brook University, where she investigated the social and energetic costs and benefits of infant care for Phayre’s leaf monkey mothers and allomothers.

Email: svee@bu.edu

Ritika Sibal is a first-year Master’s student, transitioning from the field of Computer Engineering, where she earned her Bachelor of Science at the University of Michigan, to the field of Biology. During her undergraduate tenure, Ritika used machine learning to analyze and interpret bottlenose dolphin swimming patterns. For her Master’s research, she will continue studying movement by exploring the ontogeny of locomotion with a specific aim to quantitatively characterize locomotor profiles by leveraging advancements in computer vision.

Email: rsibal@bu.edu

Victoria completed her Master’s Degree in Biology in December 2023. She compared forest structure, phenology, and orangutan habitat use between primary rainforest and degraded, regenerating rainforest in Gunung Palung National Park. She was previously an undergraduate Biological Anthropology major with a minor in Ecology and Conservation Biology. Victoria’s senior honors thesis focused on orangutan nutritional and behavioral ecology. During Summer and Fall 2020, Victoria completed a UROP project on the relationship between female orangutan ranging behavior and fruit availability. Victoria currently works at Zoo New England.

Email: vrz@bu.edu

Faye was awarded her PhD in Anthropology from Boston University in May 2023 . Previously, she received a master’s degree in biology from Clark University, where she studied amphibian locomotion. She is broadly interested in orangutan growth and development. Specifically, she examined the process of flanging in male orangutans as well as the physiological and morphological changes experienced by juvenile orangutans. She is particularly interested in the hormonal changes males and females experience prior to adulthood. For her dissertation research, she used a number of methods such as photogrammetry, endocrine analyses, behavioral observations, and statistical analyses. She collaborates with zoos throughout the US for her research.

Email: fharwell@bu.edu

Dr. Erin Kane was a postdoctoral research associate at Boston University She worked with Dr. Cheryl Knott on a project examining life history influences on orangutan feeding ecology in Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, with an emphasis on nutritional and endocrine analysis. She completed her PhD at Ohio State University in 2017. Her dissertation examined the social, ecological, and reproductive consequences of seasonal changes in food availability for Diana monkeys living in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire. She is broadly interested in understanding primate responses to fluctuating food availability, particularly from socio-ecological, endocrine, and morphological perspectives. She also aims to make anthropology and primatology more inclusive and accessible sciences for a diverse group of scientists.

E-mail: erinkane@bu.edu

Website: erinelizkane.net

Dr. Andrea Blackburn was a Postdoctoral Associate at the Santa Barbara Zoo studying the nesting behavior, ecology, and movement of California Condors. She was a Postdoctoral Associate/Lecturer at Boston University. As part of her dissertation at Boston University, she examined the seed dispersal effectiveness and dispersal distances of Bornean orangutans in Gunung Palung National Park, Indonesia. She completed her PhD at Boston University in May 2021.

E-mail: andreabl@bu.edu

Amy was awarded her PhD in Anthropology from Boston University in May 2021. Her doctoral thesis investigated behavioral measures of the mechanisms of sexual selection and genetic measures of male reproductive success to better understand the relationship between male and female reproductive strategies in Bornean orangutans. She conducted her fieldwork in Gunung Palung National Park and her genetics lab work at the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology in Jakarta, Indonesia. Amy is currently the Project Scientist of the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program.

Email: amscott@bu.edu

Lara was awarded her PhD in anthropology from Boston University in 2013. Lara’s dissertation research investigated ovarian function, mating behaviors, and life history in captive orangutans. Lara currently lectures on topics including evolutionary medicine, primate evolution and behavior, human biological variation at Harvard University, Boston University, and Tufts University. Watch her TedTalk on an evolutionary perspective on human health and disease.

Twitter: @tinkeringprim8