American Museum of Natural History
All NYCEP students have the opportunity to study the natural history collections of the American Museum of Natural History and consult with core and resource faculty based at the AMNH. Select students in the Richard Gilder Graduate School of the AMNH (the first museum-based Ph.D. program in the USA) participate in the NYCEP program. With fundamental courses in evolution, ethics and communication, systematics and biogeography, as well as immersive elective courses in genomics, conservation biology, earth sciences, organismal biology and paleontology, the RGGS program expands museum- and field-based research in areas that complement the rest of NYCEP.
The Richard Gilder Graduate School enrolled its first students in Fall 2008 with a faculty of approximately 40 curators and other colleagues.
Core Faculty
Sergio Almécija
Senior Research Scientist, Division of Anthropology
American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: ape evolution, human evolution, morphometrics, evolutionary biology
John Flynn
Frick Curator, Fossil Mammals
American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: Evolution of mammals and Mesozoic vertebrates, Geological dating, Plate tectonics, Biogeography
Ashley Hammond
Assistant Curator of Biological Anthropology, Division of Anthropology
American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: Paleoanthropology, Human Evolution, Functional Morphology, East Africa, primate locomotion
Resource Faculty and Postdocs
George Amato
Director, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics
American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: Conservation genetics and genomics, molecular ecology, cryptic biodiversity, wildlife forensics, conservation biology
Mary Blair
Director, Biodiversity Informatics Research, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation
American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: Conservation biology and genetics; evolutionary ecology; ecological niche modeling; molecular phylogenetics; landscape genetics and ecology; biogeography
Zachary Calamari
Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Sciences
CUNY Baruch College
Research interests: Ontogeny of shape, evolution of disparity, geometric morphometrics, transcriptomics
Rob DeSalle
Curator of Entomology, Division of Invertebrate Zoology
American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: molecular systematics, molecular evolution, population and conservation genetics, and evolutionary genomics
Frances Forrest
Director, Sackler Educational Laboratory for Comparative Genomics and Human Origins
American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: Taphonomy, Zooarchaeology, Paleoecology, Ecomorphology, Dental microwear, Early Stone Age, Hominin dietary variation
Sergi López-Torres
Assistant Professor, Evolutionary Paleobiology, Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences
Research Associate, Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: Primate Origins, Paleogene mammals, Evolutionary morphology, Phylogenetics
Ross MacPhee
Curator & Professor, Mammalogy/Vertebrate Zoology
Richard Gilder Graduate School, American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: paleobiogeography, extinction, and cranial developmental morphology
Jin Meng
Curator-in-Charge of Fossil Mammals, Division of Paleontology
American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: morphology, systematics, and evolution of early mammals in Asia, dental morphology, inner ear morphology, biochronology
Carrie Mongle
Gerstner Scholar and Kalbfleisch Postdoctoral Fellow
American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: Hominin phylogenetics, Craniodental morphology, Early hominin evolution, Macroevolution
Xijun Ni
Research Associate, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology
American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: vertebrate paleontology, evolutionary history of early mammals and early primates
Michael Novacek
Senior Vice President and Provost of Science, Curator & Professor, Division of Paleontology
Richard Gilder Graduate School, American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: mammalian evolution, vertebrate paleontology in Mongolia
Robert Rockwell
Research Associate, Ornithology Department
American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: migratory waterfowl, ecology, statistics
Eleanor Sterling
Professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology
Columbia University
Research interests: Conservation Biology, Mammals
Ian Tattersall
Curator Emeritus, Divison of Anthropology
American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: Human and nonhuman primate evolution; origin of Homo sapiens; integration of evolutionary and systematic theory with the human fossil record; systematics, behavior, and ecology of the strepsirhine primates
John Wahlert
Professor and Chair, Department of Natural Sciences
Baruch College, City University of New York
Research interests: vertebrate paleontology; cranial morphology of rodents
Ward Wheeler
Curator, Division of Invertebrate Zoology, Computational Sciences
American Museum of Natural History
Research interests: systematics, comparative biology, computational biology, phylogenetics, evolutionary history of metazoa
Julia Zichello
Assistant Professor of Biology, Division of Natural Sciences
College of Mount Saint Vincent
Research interests: Primate population genetics, cranial evolution, the role of genetic drift in shaping morphological diversity, Hylobatid evolutionary history