Dr. Mareike Janiak

School of Science, Engineering and Environment

Photo of Dr. Mareike Janiak

Current positions

Post-Doctoral Research Associate

Biography 

I received my B.A. in Psychology (minor in Anthropology) from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010. For my M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology I moved to Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. I completed my dissertation on “Adaptations for Folivory and Insectivory in the Digestive Enzymes of Nonhuman Primates” in 2018. From 2018 to 2020 I was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, working on comparative dietary adaptations of primates and other mammals, as well as a project on the microbiomes of rhesus macaques.

While much of my current work is heavily computational, I have previously conducted field work and taught field courses in Costa Rica, Kenya, and Indonesia.

Areas of research

Primate genomics, Comparative genomics, Primate evolution, Dietary adaptations

Research Interests

I am broadly interested in the ways that animals adapt to the specific demands of their ecological niches. I combine genomic information with dietary data or behavioral observations to understand the genetic and/or behavioral changes that allow a species to survive in its environment.