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Liliana Cortés Ortiz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) at the University of Michigan. She completed her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia in 2003, focusing her dissertation on the evolution of howler monkeys. During her doctoral research, she conducted fieldwork at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Prior to her current role, Dr. Cortés Ortiz was a permanent research professor at the Tropical Research Center at Universidad Veracruzana from 2003 to 2005 and served as an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan from 2004 to 2013. Her research interests include the evolution and systematics of Neotropical primates, with a specific focus on phylogenetics and phylogeography within the genus Alouatta. Presently, her work investigates a hybrid zone between palliata and pigra howler monkeys, which diverged three million years ago and are currently hybridizing in southeastern Mexico. Dr. Cortés Ortiz employs molecular tools to understand patterns of primate behavior and to establish a basis for primate conservation.
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science