Core Faculty


Sergio Almécija

Senior Research Scientist, Division of Anthropology

American Museum of Natural History

Research interests: ape evolution, human evolution, morphometrics, evolutionary biology


Susan Antón

Professor, Department of Anthropology

New York University

Research interests: Human evolution


Andrea Baden

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology

Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Research interests: molecular ecology, conservation genetics, social behavior, lemurs, Madagascar


Shara Bailey

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology

New York University

Research interests: Paleoanthropology, Modern human origins, Dental anthropology


Stephen Chester

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology

Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Research interests: evolutionary morphology; primate origins; mammalian evolution and response to climate change


Shahrina Chowdhury

Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology

Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Research interests: primate behavior and ecology


Marina Cords

Professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology & Anthropology

Columbia University

Research interests: social behavior, behavioral ecology, primatology, cercopithecines, African forests


Victoria Dominguez

Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology

Lehman College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Research interests: Skeletal Biology, Bone Histology and Microarchitecture, Bone Quality, Biomechanics, and Forensic Anthropology


John Flynn

Frick Curator, Fossil Mammals

American Museum of Natural History

Research interests: Evolution of mammals and Mesozoic vertebrates, Geological dating, Plate tectonics, Biogeography


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


Ashley Hammond

Assistant Curator of Biological Anthropology, Division of Anthropology

American Museum of Natural History

Research interests: Paleoanthropology, Human Evolution, Functional Morphology, East Africa, primate locomotion


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


James Higham

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology

New York University

Research interests: Sexual selection, reproduction and life history, communication and sensory ecology, and cognition and the brain


Radu Iovita

Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, New York University

Leader, ERC Group "PALAEOSILKROAD", University of Tübingen

Research interests: Paleolithic archaeology; Central Asia; Archaeological survey methods; Lithics; use-wear analysis; controlled experiments; Geometric Morphometrics


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.


Stephanie Levy

Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology

Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Research interests: Energetics, developmental origins of health and disease, life history theory, climate change, cardio-metabolic health, brown adipose tissue


Felicia Madimenos

Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology

Queens College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Research interests: female reproductive ecology, energetics, life history theory, skeletal health , modern human biology, market integration and health


Colleen McCann

Curator, Department of Mammals

Wildlife Conservation Society

Research interests: Primate socioendocrinology; Primate behavior, reproduction and evolutionary history; Conservation biology


Justin Pargeter

Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology

New York University

Research interests: Pleistocene archaeology, hominin bio-cultural evolution, stone tool technology, experimental archaeology, field archaeology, sub-Saharan Africa, science communication, public engagement


Kate Pechenkina

Professor, Department of Anthropology

Queens College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Research interests: Paleopathology, human diet and health in early China, stable isotopes, oral health


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


Ryan Raaum

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology

Lehman College & CUNY Graduate Center

Research interests: Population genetics, Bioinformatics, Human evolution, Statistical genetics


Christopher Robinson

Professor, Department of Biological Sciences

Bronx Community College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Research interests: Plio-Pleistocene hominin evolution, 3D cranial morphometrics of fossil hominins and extant hominoids, giraffid evolution


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


Scott Williams

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology

New York University

Research interests: Functional morphology, Postcranial skeleton, Vertebral column, Morphological integration, Hominin evolution, Mammalian phylogeny, Life history, Longevity.

Resource Faculty and Postdocs


Leslie Aiello

President, American Association of Physical Anthropologists

Professor Emerita, University College London

Research interests: evolution of human adaptation, life history and the evolution of the brain, diet, language and cognition


George Amato

Director, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics

American Museum of Natural History

Research interests: Conservation genetics and genomics, molecular ecology, cryptic biodiversity, wildlife forensics, conservation biology


Elizabeth Bennett

Vice President for Species Conservation

Wildlife Conservation Society

Research interests: primate conservation, South East Asia, effects of hunting and logging on wildlife


Mary Blair

Director, Biodiversity Informatics Research, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation

American Museum of Natural History

Research interests: Conservation biology and genetics; evolutionary ecology; ecological niche modeling; molecular phylogenetics; landscape genetics and ecology; biogeography


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


Andrew Burrell

Research Scientist

Department of Anthropology, New York University

Research interests: population genetics, biogeography, papionin evolution


Zachary Calamari

Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Sciences

CUNY Baruch College

Research interests: Ontogeny of shape, evolution of disparity, geometric morphometrics, transcriptomics


Joe Califf

Language Lecturer, Expository Writing Program

New York University

Research interests: Behavior; socioendocrinology; cognitive evolution; human evolution


Marine Cazenave

Postdoctoral Fellow, Division of Anthropology and RGGS

American Museum of Natural History

Research interests: paleoanthropology, internal structure, cortical bone, trabeculae, postcrania, CT-scanning


Eric Delson

Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology

Lehman College & CUNY Graduate Center

Research interests: Paleoanthropology, Primate Paleontology, Primatology, Evolutionary Biology


Peter DeMenocal

Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University

Research interests: African climate change and early human evolution, deep-sea sediment cores, tephrostratigraphy, oxygen isotope composition of planktonic foraminifera


Rob DeSalle

Curator of Entomology, Division of Invertebrate Zoology

American Museum of Natural History

Research interests: molecular systematics, molecular evolution, population and conservation genetics, and evolutionary genomics


Todd Disotell

Professor Emeritus, Anthropology, New York University

Professor, Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Research interests: Primate evolution, Molecular evolution, Molecular systematics, Phylogenetic analysis, Population genetics, Phylogeography, Computer modeling, Human evolution, Human variation


Frances Forrest

Director, Sackler Educational Laboratory for Comparative Genomics and Human Origins

American Museum of Natural History

Research interests: Taphonomy, Zooarchaeology, Paleoecology, Ecomorphology, Dental microwear, Early Stone Age, Hominin dietary variation


Patrick Gannon

Executive Dean and Chief Academic Officer, Colleges of Medicine and Arts and Sciences

International American University (St. Lucia)

Research interests: otolaryngology, evolution of the primate brain and the origins and neurobiology of language


Terry Harrison

Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology

New York University

Research interests: Fossil catarrhine primates, Early hominins, Comparative morphology, Functional anatomy, Neogene faunas from Africa and Eurasia, Paleoecology


Katerina Harvati

Professor and Director of Paleoanthropology

University of Tübingen

Research interests: hominin evolution, Neanderthals, cranial morphology, geometric morphometrics


Sidney Hemming

Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Columbia University

Research interests: geochronology, paleoclimate, isotope geochemistry


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


Patrick Hof

Regenstreif Professor and Vice-Chair, Department of Neuroscience

Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Research interests: Brain evolution, marine mammals, neocortex, neuromorphometry, neuropathology


Ralph Holloway

Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology

Columbia University

Research interests: Evolution of the brain and behavior, comparative primate psychology and aggression, ethology, evolutionary biology, paleoneurology, hominid paleontology, neural biological variability, sexual dimorphism, and allometry


Clifford Jolly

Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology

New York University

Research interests: Physical anthropology; primatology; serology; population genetics and speciation; East Africa and Asia.


Rodrigo Lacruz

Assistant Professor, Basic Science and Craniofacial Biology Department

NYU College of Dentistry

Research interests: enamel development of early hominins, histology, molecular biology/physiology


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


Christopher J Lepre

Research Staff

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, The Earth Institute of Columbia University

Research interests: Geological context of human evolution; Geoarchaeology; Stratigraphy & sedimentology; Paleomagnetism; Quaternary climate and environments; East African rift valley


Sergi López-Torres

Assistant Professor, Evolutionary Paleobiology, Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences

Research Associate, Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History

Research interests: Primate Origins, Paleogene mammals, Evolutionary morphology, Phylogenetics


Ross MacPhee

Curator & Professor, Mammalogy/Vertebrate Zoology

Richard Gilder Graduate School, American Museum of Natural History

Research interests: paleobiogeography, extinction, and cranial developmental morphology


Jin Meng

Curator-in-Charge of Fossil Mammals, Division of Paleontology

American Museum of Natural History

Research interests: morphology, systematics, and evolution of early mammals in Asia, dental morphology, inner ear morphology, biochronology


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


Alejandra Ortiz

Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Anthropology

New York University

Research interests: Hominin evolution, human skeletal biology, dental anthropology, comparative morphology, dispersal and cultural adaptations of modern humans


Herman Pontzer

Associate Professor, Department of Evolutionary Anthropology

Duke University

Research interests: human biology, evolutionary physiology, energetics and metabolism


Lauren Price

Associate Professor, Department of Biology

Farmingdale State College, SUNY

Research interests: Platyrrhine paleontology and biogeography, evolutionary history of atelid primates, howler monkey cranial morphology, geometric morphometrics


Joy Reidenberg

Professor, Center for Anatomy and Functional Morphology

and Department of Medical Education, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Research interests: comparative anatomy, development, and evolution of the mammalian upper respiratory tract


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


Eric Sanderson

Senior Conservation Ecologist

Wildlife Conservation Society

Research interests: wildlife conservation biology; human impact on ecology and the environment; The Mannahatta Project


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


Milena Shattuck

Doctoral Lecturer, Department of Anthropology

Hunter College

Research interests: primate evolution, molecular evolution, behavioral genetics and endocrinology, sexual selection, life history


Brian Shearer

Instructor, Department of Cell Biology

NYU Langone Medical Center

Research interests: geometric morphometrics, hominin evolution


Katherine St. John

Professor, Department of Mathematics & Computer Science

Hunter College & CUNY Graduate Center

Research interests: Phylogenetics, Analysis and Visualization of Trees, Random Structures and Algorithms


Eleanor Sterling

Professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology

Columbia University

Research interests: Conservation Biology, Mammals


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


Cassandra Turcotte

Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Anthropology

New York University

Research interests: comparative and functional anatomy, musculoskeletal biology, digital imaging and microscopy, 3D modeling, muscle-bone attachment regions


Kevin Uno

Lamont Assistant Research Professor, Division of Biology and Paleo Environment

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University

Research interests: Paleoecology, stable isotopes, molecular biomarkers


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


Julia Zichello

Doctoral Lecturer, Department of Anthropology

Hunter College

Research interests: Primate population genetics, cranial evolution, the role of genetic drift in shaping morphological diversity, Hylobatid evolutionary history