Walker Stanton

My name is Walker Stanton. I am a graduate student at the University of Michigan working with Dr. Jacinta Beehner. I am from Texas where I completed my Bachelor’s of Science in Neuroscience and Anthropology. My previous work analyzed behavioral flexibility in the locomotion of neotropical primates and how monkeys cope with discontinuous forest canopies. […]

Tony Estrella

Tony Estrella is PhD student in the Biological Psychology department at The University of Michigan and is advised by Dr. Thore Bergman. He’s a Southern California native who attended The University of California, Santa Cruz were he completed his B.A.s in Psychology and Biological Anthropology. Tony is broadly interested in the evolution of social cognition, […]

Sarah Kovalaskas

I am a Ph.D Candidate in Biological Anthropology at Emory University working with Dr. Marcela Benítez. I completed an MSc in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology from the University of Oxford and a BA in Anthropology at Florida State University with a minor in religion. My past work includes research on social climate and the emergence […]

Nicole Furgala

I am a Ph.D Student in Biological Anthropology at Emory University working with Dr. Marcela Benitez in the Social Cognition and Primate Behavior Lab.    Using interdisciplinary methods in anthropology and comparative cognition, I am interested in the evolutionary origins and socio-ecological pressures shaping mental-state attribution and perspective-taking in nonhuman primates. My research explores whether […]

Nicki Guisneuf

I am a graduate student in the Biopsychology department at the University of Michigan, working with Dr. Thore Bergman. I am broadly interested in vocal communication, social behavior, and conservation. My work focuses on behavioral flexibility, and how the monkeys change vocal and social behavior according to different contexts. I look at social contexts, including […]

Jordan Lucore

I am a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Michigan in Dr. Andy Marshall Lab. I also work with Dr. Jacinta Beehner and Dr. Marcela Benítez. I completed by BS at Duke University in Evolutionary Anthropology and Environment Science. My past work includes primate behavioral ecology in diverse taxa including lemurs, blue monkeys, and chimpanzees. […]

Federico Sánchez Vargas

I’m a Ph.D. student in Anthropology at Emory University working with Dr. Marcela Benítez. I graduated in 2023 from the University of Rochester with a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a B.A. in Psychology. My previous research includes characterizing the manipulation of behavior in a social wasp by an endoparasite and investigating social […]

Evan Cunningham

Evan Cunningham is a doctoral student in Biological Anthropology broadly interested in behavior, endocrinology, and evolution. He is interested in how cognitive processes are influenced by socialecological and biological factors and is studying social learning in capuchin monkeys at the Capuchins de Taboga field site in Costa Rica. He is also interested in how behavioral […]

Chloë India Wright

I am a PhD student at the University of Lincoln, UK, working on sociability and social competence in wild white-faced capuchin monkeys with Dr Teresa Romero (University of Portsmouth) and Dr Marcela Benítez (Emory University). Before starting my PhD, I worked on a range of projects with primates, including personality and social networks in squirrel […]

Violette Viard

My name is Violette, I am French and I was the Lab’s research assistant in Taboga. I graduated in 2022 with a Master’s degree in Human Physiology but after some time studying humans, I decided monkeys were much cooler ! I joined  Capuchinos de Taboga in August 2023 for a one year-commitment as a field and […]