Dr. Alexander Piel

Biography

Alexander Piel is a biological anthropologist with a four-field background in anthropology. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Animal Behaviour from Bucknell University in 2001, followed by a Master’s degree in Anthropology from Iowa State University in 2003. He received his PhD from the University of California, San Diego in 2014. His fieldwork experience includes extensive research conducted in Madagascar, Kenya, and Senegal since 2005, where he studied chimpanzees in the Issa Valley of western Tanzania. In 2008, he, along with Fiona Stewart, initiated the Greater Mahale Ecosystem Research Conservation Project (GMERC), focusing on the behavior, ecology, and conservation of chimpanzees, red-tailed monkeys, and yellow baboons. His primary research interests include adaptations to living in dry, mosaic habitats and the implications of these adaptations for reconstructions of hominid evolution. For more details about his research projects and interests, visit www.gmerc.org.

Research Interests

Experience