City University of New York
Core NYCEP faculty at the City University of New York are based in the Physical Anthropology section of the doctoral program in Anthropology at The Graduate Center, with a strong emphasis on evolutionary approaches to understanding human and nonhuman primate biology. All doctoral students in Physical Anthropology at CUNY participate in NYCEP. CUNY faculty advise students and conduct research in paleoanthropology, paleoprimatology, human and primate population genetics, primate behavior and nutritional ecology, hominin behavior and paleoecology, comparative and functional morphology, bioarchaeology, systematics, geometric morphometrics, forensic and skeletal biology, and conservation biology.
Physical anthropology at CUNY covers a wide range of topics, with a strong emphasis on evolutionary approaches to understanding human and nonhuman primate biology. Current research involves: comparative morphology, scientific visualization and 3D morphometrics, paleontology, biogeography, and systematics of humans and other primates; primate ecology and its relationships to both social behavior and to conservation problems; the biology of modern humans; skeletal growth and development, osteology, and bone biology; craniofacial development and comparative anatomy; and forensic anthropology.
The doctoral program in physical anthropology at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York is itself a consortium system. Each of the core faculty is based at one of the CUNY system's senior colleges (see individual college Anthropology Department pages at Brooklyn College, Hunter College, Lehman College, and Queens College).
Core Faculty
Andrea Baden
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology Hunter College, City University of New York
Research interests: molecular ecology, primate life history, social and reproductive strategies, lemurs, Madagascar
Stephen Chester
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology Brooklyn College, City University of New York
Research interests: evolutionary morphology; primate origins; mammalian evolution and response to climate change
Eric Delson
Professor, Department of Anthropology Lehman College & CUNY Graduate Center
Research interests: Paleoanthropology, Primate Paleontology, Primatology, Evolutionary Biology
Christopher Gilbert
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Research interests: Primate paleontology, Geometric morphometrics, Ecomorphology, Systematics, Phylogenetics
William Harcourt-Smith
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology Lehman College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Research interests: Paleoanthropology, Human Evolution, Hominin postcranial morphology, Functional Anatomy, Primate locomotion, Hominoid paleoecology, Geometric morphometrics, Skeletal variation
Jeffrey Laitman
Distinguished Professor and Director, Center for Anatomy and Functional Morphology Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Research interests: Comparative anatomy, development and evolution of the mammalian aerodigestive tract (upper respiratory, upper digestive, vocal) and contiguous areas of the cranial base.
Felicia Madimenos
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology Queens College, City University of New York
Research interests: female reproductive ecology, energetics, life history theory, skeletal health , modern human biology, market integration and health
Kate Pechenkina
Professor, Department of Anthropology Queens College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Research interests: Biological anthropology, Bioarchaeology, Disease in prehistory, Bone pathology, Neolithic China, Prehistoric Peru
Thomas Plummer
Professor, Department of Anthropology Queens College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Research interests: Pliocene and Pleistocene hominin behavior and paleoecology, the adaptive significance of Early Stone Age lithic technology, hominin and mammalian paleontology, ecomorphology, human osteology
Herman Pontzer
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Research interests: Human Evolution, Locomotor Biomechanics, Energetics, Experimental Biology, Primate Ecomorphology, Dmanisi
Ryan Raaum
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology Lehman College & CUNY Graduate Center
Research interests: Population genetics, Bioinformatics, Human evolution, Statistical genetics
Jessica Rothman
Professor, Department of Anthropology Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Research interests: Primate ecology and behavior, nutrition, evolutionary ecology, Old World Monkeys, Apes, Africa
Michael Steiper
Professor, Department of Anthropology Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Research interests: Genetics, DNA, Phylogenetics, Population genetics, Primates, Hominoids, Malaria, Molecular clocks
Larissa Swedell
Professor, Department of Anthropology Queens College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Research interests: social behavior, behavioral ecology, reproductive strategies, evolution of social organization, human social evolution, conservation, baboons
Resource Faculty
Tim Bromage
Professor, Department of Biomaterials New York University College of Dentistry,
Research interests: Hard tissue biology, organismal life history, chronobiology, human evolution, metabolic ecology
Roberto Delgado
Scientific Program Manager, Office for Research on Disparities and Global Mental Health National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health
Research interests: animal behavior, communication, evolutionary ecology, response of non-human primates to anthropogenic threats and climate change, orangutans, South East Asia
Katerina Harvati
Professor and Director of Paleoanthropology University of Tübingen
Research interests: hominin evolution, Neanderthals, cranial morphology, geometric morphometrics
Michael Hickerson
Associate Professor, Department of Biology City College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Research interests: Comparative Phylogeography, Approximate Bayesian Computation, Population Genetics
David Lahti
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York
Research interests: Vocal learning, relaxed selection and trait loss, brood parasitism and coevolution, bird egg color, cultural evolution, human social evolution, ethics and philosophy of biology
Ross MacPhee
Curator & Professor, Mammalogy/Vertebrate Zoology Richard Gilder Graduate School, American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: paleobiogeography, extinction, and cranial developmental morphology
Xijun Ni
Research Associate, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: vertebrate paleontology, evolutionary history of early mammals and early primates
Michael Novacek
Senior Vice President and Provost of Science, Curator & Professor, Division of Paleontology Richard Gilder Graduate School, American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: mammalian evolution, vertebrate paleontology in Mongolia
John G. Robinson
Chief Conservation Officer & Executive Vice President, Conservation and Science Wildlife Conservation Society
Research interests: conservation biology; tropical forest conservation; ethnozoology, primate sociobiology and ecology; evolutionary biology; wildlife hunting and trading
Robert Rockwell
Research Associate, Ornithology Department American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: migratory waterfowl, ecology, statistics
F. James Rohlf
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Ecology and Evolution Research Professor, Department of Anthropology
Research interests: multivariate statistics, geometric morphometrics, numerical taxonomy
Alfred Rosenberger
Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Research interests: Primate evolution, Primate origins, Neotropical primates
Mitchell Schaffler
CUNY and Wallace Coulter Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering City College of New York, City University of New York
Research interests: Bone biomechanics, tendon biomechanics, Skeletal fragility and aging, Bone physiology, Osteocyte function, Osteoporosis, Quantitative methods in analysis of skeletal structure
Katherine St. John
Professor, Department of Mathematics & Computer Science Lehman College & CUNY Graduate Center
Research interests: Phylogenetics, Analysis and Visualization of Trees, Random Structures and Algorithms
Ian Tattersall
Curator Emeritus, Divison of Anthropology American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: Human and nonhuman primate evolution; origin of Homo sapiens; integration of evolutionary and systematic theory with the human fossil record; systematics, behavior, and ecology of the strepsirhine primates
John Van Couvering
Editor in Chief Micropaleontology Press
Research interests: Principles and practices in stratigraphic geology; age and environments of Cenozoic mammal faunas of Africa and southern Eurasia; the Neogene time scale and chronostratigraphic boundaries
John Wahlert
Professor and Chair, Department of Natural Sciences Baruch College, City University of New York
Research interests: vertebrate paleontology; cranial morphology of rodents
Ward Wheeler
Curator, Division of Invertebrate Zoology, Computational Sciences American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: systematics, comparative biology, computational biology, phylogenetics, evolutionary history of metazoa