CHES Graduate Affiliate
- Rebecca Brittain
- Advisor: Dr. Erin R. Vogel
- Focus Area: Non-Human Primates
- Email: rebecca.brittain@rutgers.edu
- ACADEMIC BIOGRAPHY:
I joined the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers in the fall of 2016 after earning my B.S. in Anthropology and M. S. in Biology, both from Grand Valley State University in west Michigan. My masters research quantified the relationship between geophagy and intestinal parasites in rhesus macaques on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico.
- CURRENT PROJECTS:
My dissertation research focuses on the associations between diet, gut microbial composition, and energetics in wild Bornean orangutans at Tuanan. Prior to joining Rutgers, I collected one year of pilot data for this project at my advisor’s field site, the Tuanan Orangutan Research Station, in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.
- RESEARCH INTERESTS:
My general research interests include the gut microbiome, primate nutrition, health and disease, and energetics. I explore these factors in physiological, ecological and evolutionary contexts. I am also interested in how these factors shaped hominin evolution.
