Zelnick Award
The Zelnick Family Research Fund, an endowment established by the Zelnick-Belzberg Charitable Trust, provides funding each year for the research of an exemplary CHES graduate affiliate in his or her second year in the PhD program.
Kyra Johnson
The Effects of Wildfires on Archaeological Materials.
Fire has played an essential role in human evolution, but identifying whether a fire was anthropogenic or natural in the archaeological record has proven difficult. There has been surprisingly little experimental investigation of the effects of natural fires on archaeological context. In collaboration with a team from the Rutgers Pine Barrens Research Station in southern New Jersey, Ms. Johnson will pursue this line of inquiry through carefully controlled burns. The resulting data will allow her to develop a program for her dissertation analysis of archaeological (bone) samples from sites where there is evidence of fire usage.
Denise Mercado
Coalitional Psychology, Social Networks, and Health in Ifugao, Philippines.
This study investigates how coalitional psychology and social prominence (defined as position in a social network) is related to health and general well-being among people living in Ifuago, Philippines. This pilot research will contribute to developing Denise's dissertation research focusing on the relationship between religion as a meaning making system and the evolution of cooperation.
Dominique Raboin
Feeding Efficiency, Growth, and Energetics in Juvenile Olive Baboons
This research seeks to clarify why the juvenile period of life is so long in primates, relative to most other mammals. The research involves observation of behavior and noninvasive collection of physiological and growth data from the juveniles in the olive baboon study groups of CHES faculty Ryne Palombit's field project.
Tibisay Navarro-Mañá
Microarchaeology of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition in the Levant at Skhul and Tabun Caves (Mount Carmel, Israel)
This research focuses on the micro-botanical archaeological record left behind by Neanderthals and Modern humans in the sediments of Tabun and Skhul caves in the Mount Carmel region, Israel, to better understand their fire technology and social life.
Rebecca Brittain
Gut Microbes and Nutrition in Wild Bornean Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) at the Tuanan Research Station
This study of orangutans combines DNA sequencing to measure gut microbe abundance and diversity with data on nutritional ecology to better understand the energetic and health contributions of gut microbes, particularly during periods of food scarcity.
LaShanda Williams
Exploring Oral Microbial Diversity in Early 20th Century European Immigrants and New York City Residents
This pilot research will characterize the oral microbiome of European immigrants and New York City residents who died between 1890-1920 using the Huntington collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH).
Fred Foster
An Integrated Perspective on the Functional Morphology and Locomotion of Miocene Apes
Didik Prasetyo
The Development of Bimaturism in Male Orangutans: the Influence of Social Dominance and Nutritional Status
Shauhin Alavi
Nutrients In and Nutrients Out: Diet, Cognition, and Nutrient Cycling in Orangutan Habitats
Tim Bransford
Investigating the Energetic and Nutritional Costs of Motherhood in Wild Bornean Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii)
Rene Studer-Halbach
Pilot Research on Fossil Cercopithecoids in the Ditsong National Museum, South Africa
Mareike Janiak
Inter- and Intra-specific Differences in Platyrrhine Digestive Enzymes
Stan Kivai
How do Tana River Mangabeys (Cercocebus galeritus) Attain Ecological Competence: Effects of Mechanical Properties and Nutritional Quality of Fallback Foods
Darcy Shapiro
The Functional Anatomy of the Primate Ilium: Implications for Locomotor Reconstruction in Fossil Taxa
Susan Coiner-Collier
Trabecular Architecture of the Mandibular Condyle and Early Hominin Diet
Pam Weis
A Pilot Investigation of Taphonomic Processes in the Okavango Delta, Botswana
Emily Lynch
Patrilineal Kin Relationships in a Matrilineal Society of Olive Baboons (Papio anubis)
