Katie Gerstner

I am a biological anthropologist who studies the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of health and behavior. My field and laboratory research focuses on a wild population of critically endangered chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Senegal. My primary academic and professional work integrates One-Health approaches with ecological, behavioral, physiological, life history, and statistical data to broadly understand the evolution of the primate-hominin lineage, and more specifically, understand how people and nonhuman primates cope with extreme heat and sharing space in savanna landscapes of the Anthropocene. 

Research Interests

• Primate behavioral ecology
• Wildlife conservation
• Microbiome
• Heat stress
• Savanna landscapes
• Nutritional ecology