About Me
I am a Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology at Nottingham Trent University. I am part of the FACEDIFF team, an interdisciplinary group of researchers investigating relationships between facial expressivity and social behavior in humans and nonhuman primates. Most of my research has been conducted on the rhesus macaque population from Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico, one of the longest-running primate field sites in the world.
Education
PhD (2015-2021)
Biological Anthropology
MA (2013-2015)
Anthropology
BA (2009-2013)
Anthropology
Projects
I am currently working on the FACEDIFF project, which is funded by the European Research Council. My projects focus on measuring relationships between facial expressivity and social network metrics in free-ranging rhesus macaques.
My PhD research focused on understanding the selective mechanisms underlying the maintenance of sexual dimorphism in body mass and canine size in rhesus macaques. I investigated:
1) the function of canine teeth and body size as signals and/or weapons,
2) how wound risk relates to male reproductive strategies, and
3) age-specific selection on male body mass.
Check out a blog post I wrote for The Leakey Foundation!
I contributed to the description of a new gibbon species: Hoolock tianxing (also known as the Skywalker gibbon), and to a description of fossil hylobatid molars from the Pleistocene of southern China.
Image credit: Fan Peng-Fei (https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38576819).
Funding Sources
Many thanks to the following organizations for supporting my research!
The Leakey Foundation
National Science Foundation
American Society of Primatologists
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© 2018