Lynne A. Isbell is a Professor of Anthropology at UC Davis. Her research focus is largely focused on primate behavior and ecology, especially food (competition, spatial and temporal distribution, abundance, and nutrition), predation, dispersal, and ranging behavior; Primate evolution, especially where, how, and why primates originated. As a committee member of the UC Davis ADVANCE Mentorship and Networking Initiative, Dr. Isbell is interested in implicit bias in academia.

Dr. Isbell is field-oriented, and has engaged in multi-year fieldwork in Uganda and Kenya, with briefer forays into Madagascar, Tanzania, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Recently, she has also published research on the gender bias at the annual American Association of Physical Anthropologist annual meetings, as demonstrated by the relative number of talks and posters presented. Dr. Isbell received a Ph.D. in Animal Behavior from UC Davis.

She serves as member of the Animal Behavior Society, American Association of Physical Anthropologists, International Primatological Society, American Society of Primatologists, Sigma Xi.

Authored book: Isbell, L.A. 2009 (paperback edition, 2011). The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent: Why We See So Well. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

Dr. Isbell’s recent publications include:

Van Le, Q., Isbell, L.A., Nguyen, M.N., Matsumoto J., Hori, E., Maior, R.S., Tomaz, C., Tran, A.H., Ono, T., and Nishijo, H. 2013. Pulvinar neurons reveal neurobiological evidence of past selection for rapid detection of snakes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110:19000-19005.

Isbell, L.A., Young, T.P., and Harcourt, A.H. 2012. Stag parties linger: continued gender bias in a female-rich scientific discipline. PLoS ONE 7:e49682. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049682/

Recent awards and media coverage:

2013 Interviews about research primate vision in relation to snakes with NPR’s All Things Considered, ScienceNOW, National Geographic, The Scientist, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Agence France-Presse, Deutchlandradio, ABC Science Online, Io9, Vice Magazine, Today’s Science, A Moment of Science, UC Davis

2013-2015 National Science Foundation Grant: Spatial ecology of predator-prey relationships in East Africa ($303,479)

2011 The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent, Pick of the Paperbacks selection, Telegraph (London)

2010 The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent, Runner-up, The Atlantic Books of the Year Award

2010 Dean’s Innovation Award, College of Letters and Science, Social Sciences Division, UC Davis

2010 Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate and Professional Teaching, UC Davis

2009 The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent, CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title