Stacy Rosenbaum

I am a biological anthropologist who studies the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of social behavior. Humans and many other animals develop myriad social relationships across the course of their lifetimes. I study how these relationships develop and are maintained, what their consequences are for participants, and how individual relationships impact evolutionary dynamics. Such relationships have many physiological correlates; for example, hormones and social behavior work in complex feedback loops. I also study how relationships and physiology impact one another, and how their interactions affect health, longevity, and reproductive success.My primary field and laboratory research focuses on a wild population of endangered mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei) in the Great Lakes region of Africa that has been monitored for more than 50 years. In addition to studying gorillas, I also work on complementary research questions about human and non-human primate health, evolution, and sociality using the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (a long-term study of humans in Cebu, the Philippines), and data collected for the Amboseli Baboon Research Project, in southern Kenya. My research program integrates behavioral, demographic, genetic, ecological, and physiological data to gain a richer understanding of the evolution of mammals generally, and the hominid lineage specifically.