PI: Amy Lu
Amy Lu is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, Associate Co-director of the Simien Mountains Gelada Research Project in Ethiopia, and co-director of the Kaludiyapokuna Primate Conservation and Research Project in Sri Lanka. She is broadly interested in developmental plasticity, behavioral endocrinology, reproductive physiology, sexual selection, and life history in non-human primates. As a graduate student, she studied how ecological and social factors influenced female reproduction and mating strategies in wild Phayre’s leaf monkeys (Trachypithecus crepusculus phayrei). After finishing her Ph.D. in 2009 (Stony Brook University, advised by Dr. Carola Borries), she obtained postdoctoral positions, first at the University of Michigan (advised by Dr. Jacinta Beehner) and then at the University of Illinois. During those years, she developed an interest in developmental plasticity, particularly in response to early life stress and maternal behavior. Since then, she has actively engaged in research projects focusing on how ecological and social adversity impacts maternal investment and offspring phenotype in wild and captive primate populations.
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In Amy’s spare time, she juggles two young kids, two geriatric dogs, sleeping early enough to get up at 6am to go to the gym, and finding time to relax. It's a work in progress.
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Graduate students
Natalia Camargo Peña is a PhD student in the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences at Stony Brook University. She received her bachelor's degree in Biology at the University of the Andes in Colombia in 2019. She has studied the behavior of woolly monkeys in the Amazon rainforest and chimpanzees in Uganda. Before grad school, she was a lab manager at the Cognitive Evolution Group at the University of Michigan, where she conducted research on the behavior and cognition of semi-free-ranging rhesus macaques and chimpanzees. She is interested in the effects of maternal behavior and early environment on infant development and the socioecological determinants of maternal styles. Natalia enjoys coding and primate fieldwork. She likes playing guitar, hiking, and rock climbing in her free time.
Lucia Muzzarelli is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, advised by Dr. Amy Lu. She received her bachelor's degree in Human Evolutionary Biology at the Stony Brook University in 2019. From 2020-2023, she worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania for the Maternal Fetal Medicine Research Program, carrying out pregnancy research studies with human subjects. She is interested in biological mechanisms of developmental plasticity, and the effects of early-life environment on later-life health. In her free time, Lucia enjoys crocheting, dancing ballet, and spending time with her cat.
Alumni
Jacob Feder received his PhD in the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences (IDPAS) at Stony Brook University in 2023, where he examined the links between sociality and reproductive success in gelada monkeys. Jacob is currently an NSF SBE Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Dr. Joan Silk at Arizona State University. His research aims to identify the ecological and social forces that shape inter- and intra-specific variation in sociality across baboons and their close relatives.
Evelyn Pain received her PhD in the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences at Stony Brook in 2022. She is currently a Postdoctoral researcher with Dr. Chris Schmitt at Boston University. Her reseach focuses on developing research capacity and genomics-based projects on the Critically Endangered yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Lagothrix flavicauda) at the Hierba Buena-Allpayacu Reserve in Corosha, Perú.
Alice Baniel was a NSF postdoctoral researcher working in the labs of Dr. Amy Lu at Stony Brook University and Dr. Noah Snyder-Mackler at the University of Washington. She is broadly interested in developmental plasticity, parental care, life history strategies and sexual selection in primates. She is currently working on the causes and consequences of premature weaning in wild geladas, investigating in particular the link between early life condition and gut microbial composition. Alice completed her PhD in 2016 under the supervision of Dr. Elise Huchard and Dr. Guy Cowlishaw at the University of Montpellier, France. Her dissertation focused on the determinants and evolutionary consequences of inter- and intrasexual conflicts over reproduction in wild chacma baboons living in the Namib desert. She was then a Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST) working on sexual violence in humans. During her free time, Alice likes to hike, do some kayaking and pottery.
India Schneider-Crease was a NSF postdoctoral researcher working in the labs of Dr. Amy Lu at Stony Brook University and Dr. Noah Snyder-Mackler at the University of Washington. She is interested in the social and ecological components of immunity and disease susceptibility, and in understanding infectious disease as an evolutionary driver in primates. India completed her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Charlie Nunn and Dr. Leslie Digby at Duke University (2017) on tapeworm parasitism in geladas in the Simien Mountains National Park, Ethiopia, and is currently working in the same gelada population to evaluate the role of the early life environment on immune development. Beyond academics, India is involved in community-based conservation work in Ethiopia and likes to climb rocks and track spotted hyenas whenever possible.
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Rachel Perlman is a Ph.D candidate in the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences at Stony Brook University. She is broadly interested in sexual selection, behavioral endocrinology, and the evolution of primate mating strategies. Her research is focused on reproductive ecology and the physiological processes underlying mechanisms of reproductive competition. For her dissertation, she is examining the role of energetics in male reproductive strategies in geladas as part of the Gelada Research Project. Her research combines behavioral observations of geladas in the field with non-invasive hormone sampling and radioimmunoassays in the lab. When she’s not sitting in front of her computer or chasing monkeys in the highlands of Ethiopia, Rachel enjoys playing with her pet ferret, Dexter. You can read more on Rachel’s personal website here. A link to Rachel’s CV can be found here.
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Lauren Petrullo received her PhD in the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences at Stony Brook University in 2020. She is currently an NSF Biology Postdoctoral Fellow with Ben Dantzer at the University of Michigan, and she will be starting a tenure-track faculty position in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Arizona. Her research is centered on the proximate mechanisms driving phenotypic variation during development and aims to investigate the potential adaptive value of developmental plasticity by combining both proximate and evolutionary approaches within a life history framework. Lauren's research subjects include captive vervet monkeys and wild squirrels in the Yukon. When she's not in the lab, Lauren is likely running, cooking, playing with her dogs, or rescuing other dogs. Lauren’s website can be found here.
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Laura Morrissey is a research assistant for the Gelada Research Project where she specializes in collecting fecal samples and behavioral data from infants and their associated mothers. She is a recent graduate of Stony Brook University where she obtained a B.S. in Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience and a B.S. in Human Evolutionary Biology. In addition, Laura completed an undergraduate thesis with Dr. Amy Lu that looked at the effect of parity on maternal investment in geladas. Prior to being a research assistant, Laura spent a few months in Kenya as a Turkana Basin teaching assistant. In her spare time, Laura likes to play volleyball, soccer and go horseback riding.
Richard Liang graduated with a double major in Biology and Anthropology at Stony Brook University in 2018. He assisted the graduate students in the endocrinology lab with their research, worked in the digital photogrammetry lab and was also the webmaster for this site. Additionally, he volunteers at the Stony Brook Hospital and interns at the Stony Brook Primary Care Center. After he graduates, he plans on attending medical school to obtain his M.D. He enjoys biking and making origami during his free time.
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Rachel Perlman received her Ph.D in the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences at Stony Brook University in 2021. Her research is focused on reproductive ecology and the physiological processes underlying mechanisms of reproductive competition. For her dissertation, she examined the role of energetics in male reproductive strategies in geladas as part of the Gelada Research Project. Her research combines behavioral observations of geladas in the field with non-invasive hormone sampling and radioimmunoassays in the lab. When she’s not sitting in front of her computer or chasing monkeys in the highlands of Ethiopia, Rachel enjoys playing with her pet ferret, Dexter. You can read more on Rachel’s personal website here. A link to Rachel’s CV can be found here.
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