This award provides funds to establish a multi-institutional Research Training Group in Evolutionary Primatology. The faculty group includes 20 evolutionary and behavioral biologists at five institutions in New York City: the American Museum of Natural History, City University of New York, Columbia University, New York University and The New York Zoological Society. The funds awarded will provide stipends for graduate students and postdoctoral trainees, and will defray part of the cost of the trainees' research. In addition, funds will be used to purchase specialized research equipment to be used by trainees and to bring investigators from other research and academic institutions to give research seminars and in some cases, to participate in longer term training activities. Evolutionary primatology draws its theory, methods and empirical data from many areas within the biological sciences, anthropology, and geology. The research programs of the participating faculty focus on human and non-human primates from the perspectives of morphology, paleontology, systematics, molecular and population genetics, behavior, ecology, and conservation biology. Thus the training provided by this group will equip students with the broad background necessary for integrative studies in this challenging and interesting area.
