Jimmy Erkens

Matriculated September 2023

Research Interests

Stress, African and Asian monkeys, genomics/genetics, behavioral ecology, geometric morphometrics, Bayesian statistics

About

Jimmy Erkens is a first-year doctoral student working in the Sensory Morphology and Anthropological Genomics Lab (SMAGL). Under the advisement of Dr. Christopher Schmitt and Dr. Cheryl Knott, he is investigating St. Kitts green monkeys’ stress responses to anthropogenic pressures. More broadly, through a holistic approach and incorporating Bayesian methods, he looks to compare populations of St. Kitts and West African green monkeys. Prior to starting their Ph.D. at Boston University, Jimmy completed his B.S. in Statistics and Anthropological Sciences at The Ohio State University. Here, he examined stress-related enamel defects between chacma and olive baboons living inside and outside of South African national parks using Bayesian and frequentist methods. For his honors thesis, using facial fluctuating asymmetry as a proxy for developmental instability, he compared species-level responses to anthropogenic stresses among Endangered Western Red colobus, King colobus, and Angola colobus monkeys.

Awards & Grants

• forthcoming

Publications

• Erkens J, Salaymeh J, Beamish E, Chowdhury S, Swedell L, Guatelli-Steinberg D, McGraw WS, McGrath K. Stress-related enamel defect prevalence and severity in Papio ursinus and P. anubis. Am J Biol Anthropol 177(S73).