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Neetha Iyer

Education

  • 2018 - M.A. Evolutionary Anthropology (University of California, Davis)
  • 2013 - B.S. Molecular & Environmental Biology (University of California, Berkeley)
  • 2013 - B.A. French (University of California, Berkeley)

About

Neetha Iyer is an ecologist from India who is fascinated by the complex interactions between social behavior, population dynamics, infectious diseases, and the environment. She is interested in understanding the factors that influence sociality and group-living. Eastern gorillas exhibit marked intra-specific variation in their diet and demography. Yet much of what we know about this great ape is based on a single subspecies, the mountain gorilla. Her dissertation is focused on the closely-related Grauer’s gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), found in isolated populations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She explores how seasonal variation affects social behavior, how parasites are transmitted among social groups, and how demographic stochasticity affects small population dynamics. She hopes her research can be used by wildlife managers and applied to conservation efforts to protect endangered primates and other animals that are increasingly threatened by deforestation and other human-induced environmental changes. She is  passionate about promoting diversity in academia by increasing public access to basic science research, through the Outreach Program in the Department of Anthropology and the official Animal Behavior Graduate Group blog The Ethogram. As a graduate student, she also supports the statewide student-worker union UAW 2865 and the recently-formed Student Researcher's United (SRU). She joins 48,000 academic workers at the UC as we bargain for strong contracts to improve our living and working conditions. 

Advisor: Dr. Damien Caillaud

Research Focus

Primate sociality, movement ecology, social networks, host-parasite interactions, animal behavior, conservation science

Teaching

Associate Instructor (AI) Positions:

  • ANT158: The Evolution of Sex: A Biological Perspective (Fall 2019, 2020, 2021)
  • ANT1: Human Evolutionary Biology (Summer Session II 2021)

Teaching Assistant (TA) Positions:

  • ANT1: Human Evolutionary Biology (Fall 2017, Winter 2019)
  • ANT27: Great Adaptations: Genetic & Cultural Evolution in the Spread of Humanity
  • ANT153: Human Genetics (Winter 2018)
  • ANT 154A: Primate Socioecology (Fall 2018)
  • ANT191: Data Visualization (Spring 2018)

Reader Positions:

  • ANT155: Primate Conservation Biology (Spring 2020, 2021)
  • ANT191: Data Visualization (Spring 2019)

Awards

  • American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association (ASTDA) Small Project Assistance Grant (Research project led by Eve Banas, B.S. Evolution, Ecology & Biodiversity, UC Davis) (2022)
  • UC Davis Microbiome Special Research Program, Microbiome Graduate Research Award (2019)
  • UC Davis Evolutionary Anthropology, Rodman-Mitani Award (2019)
  • Morris Animal Foundation, Pilot Study Grant (2018-2019)
  • UC Davis Evolutionary Anthropology, Summer Fellowship (2017, 2018)
  • UC Davis Institute of Social Sciences, Summer Fellowship (2017, 2018)
  • UC Davis Graduate Student Association Travel Award (2017)
  • UC Davis Women's Resources & Research Center Graduate Research Grant (2017)
  • UC Davis Provost's Fellowship in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (2016-2017)