Jessica Martin

Jessica Martin (she/her) is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology. Her research examines how diet, social behavior, and gastrointestinal health shape the gut microbiome in wild vervet monkeys across three ecologically distinct study sites in South Africa. To learn more about Martin’s research and publications, visit her webpage.

In Spring 2023, Jessica was awarded travel funds to conduct preliminary research and fecal analysis of wild vervet monkeys living in two locations in South Africa with fundamentally different diets. One location has natural foraging, while the other facilitates agricultural and human food foraging. She hopes that this information will provide greater insight into the health and well-being of primate populations. Learn more in our featured article.

In Spring 2025, Jessica received a CISS Summer mini-grant to support her work in gut microbial collection and analysis using Oxford Nanopore 16S rRNA sequencing and shotgun metagenomics. These data, alongside measures of gut inflammation and parasitic infection, will be integrated with behavioral observations to assess how anthropogenic diets influence vervet monkey health. Her work also contributes to local training and community engagement through hands-on instruction in field and lab techniques for university students, as well as the development of interactive microbiome-focused lessons for schoolchildren near the study sites.. Learn more in our featured article.

In Spring 2026, Jessica received a CISS Summer mini-grant to support the hire of an undergraduate research assistant to support laboratory analyses of data collected during her dissertation fieldwork.