Jessica is a Professor in the Dept of Anthropology and Director of the Human Biology Program at Hunter College of the City University of New York. She is also an Honorary Wildlife Officer at the Uganda Wildlife Authority in Uganda. As the Director of the research group, she is broadly interested in wildlife nutrition - how wild animals meet their nutritional needs with a variety of ecological constraints. She is also interested in applying nutritional ecology to conservation problems.

B.S. Animal Science, Cornell University
PhD Animal Nutrition, Cornell University
Post Doc, Dept of Biology, McGill University

Based in Uganda, Hillary is the Project Manager. He is an amazing field researcher and also coordinates the logistics in Uganda.

Jenny is our Lab Manager and also a Master’s student. She is our nutrition guru who helps to train new students and scholars on nutritional assays. Her MA research is focused on tree growth and nutritional ecology in relation to climate change.

Kaia is a postdoctoral fellow interested in the evolution of social behavior. Food competition is a major influence on group size, but how this competition arises from the various features of food availability in the habitat (including food distribution, quantity, quality, and ephemerality) to influence grouping dynamics remains one of the greatest challenges in socioecology. Her current work investigates food quality and how the pursuit of nutrients in the environment to meet species-specific needs affects the distribution of individuals and structures their social organization, with a focus on zebras and gorillas.

Email: kt2405@hunter.cuny.edu

Emma is a PhD student in the lab. She is interested in studying primate nutritional ecology with a focus on the interactions between plants and primates and how these interactions impact foraging behavior. She has previously focused on how tannins (a type of plant secondary metabolite) impact a herbivore’s ability to efficiently digest protein.

Email: ethurau@gradcenter.cuny.edu

Website: https://ethurau.wixsite.com/emmathurau

Brynn is a PhD student affiliated with The Graduate Center of CUNY and NYCEP. She is interested in the use of plant physiology and plant-animal interactions for studying primate foraging behavior and tropical rainforest communities. She has a background in the plant sciences and the application of stable isotope biochemistry for reconstructing tropical forest canopies.

email: BrynnLowry@gmail.com.

Will is a PhD student at Rutgers University where he is a member of Dr. Erin Vogel’s Laboratory for Primate Dietary Ecology and Physiology. He is currently studying the nutritional ecology of Bornean orangutans at the site of Tuanan, Indonesia. He is particularly interested in how primate diet selection and physiology are influenced by plant secondary metabolites. Dr. Rothman serves on his PhD committee and Will is adapting some of the plant chemistry techniques from the nutrition lab to the Tuanan lab in Borneo.

Dominique is a PhD Candidate at Rutgers University in the Evolutionary Anthropology program and her major advisor is Dr. Ryne Palombit. She is interested in non-human primate behavior and energetics. Her current research focuses on behavioral plasticity, growth, and energetics of juvenile olive baboons in two ecologically distinct populations - Kibale National Park, Uganda and the Laikipia Plateau, Kenya. She has previously studied the maternal feeding benefits of allomaternal care in black-and-white colobus monkeys in Kibale for her MA degree at Hunter College. Dr. Rothman serves on her committee and she will be studying the baboon group we monitor.

Email: dominique.raboin@rutgers.edu

Nina is a PhD student at the Graduate Center of CUNY where she is a member of Dr. Andrea Baden’s Primate Molecular Ecology Lab at Hunter College. Her research focuses on the nutritional ecology of black-and-white ruffed lemurs in Madagascar, with a particular interest in the impacts of both habitat degradation and regeneration on this fruit-specialist. Dr. Rothman is on her committee and she analyzes the foods eaten by lemurs in the nutritional ecology lab.

Email: nbeeby@gradcenter.cuny.edu

Alexa is a PhD student at Yale University working with Dr. Eduardo Fernandez-Duque and the Owl Monkey Project. She is interested in how habitat and land-use relate to primate ecology, nutrition and long-term population viability. She has a background in conservation and behavioral ecology. She is collaborating with our group on the nutritional aspects of her research.

Kathrine is a PhD candidate with the University of Konstanz and the Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany. Broadly, she is interested in how the acquisition of resources (e.g., food, mates, territory etc.) influences the structure and organization of animal societies. She is currently studying the nutritional ecology and intergroup relationships of bonobos at the LuiKotale field site, Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to investigate how the responses of individuals and groups to their social and ecological environment shape intra- and inter-group social dynamics within the population. Dr. Rothman serves as a member on her thesis advisory committee and provides crucial guidance on her project theory and methods.

Collena is a Master’s student focused on food selection by colobus monkeys.

Jonnathan Fallas is a second-year Master's student, but was also an undergraduate in the lab. His research interests include dietary ecology, life history, and kinship among primates. He is also interested in the roles through which primates alter their ecosystems.

email: jonathanfallas1@gmail.com

Aaron is a second-year master student, and his major interests are primate ecology and conservation. He is specifically interested in primate vigilance during terrestrial geophagy.

Email: aaronherrera96@gmail.com