I have an ever growing research team that works on projects in the field, the laboratory, and multiple field laboratories.

Mrinalini Erkenswick Watsa

I am currently the a Scientist a the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research (read about my research here). I was the Bud Heller Fellow at the Zoo from 2019-2020.

I also serve as the Treasurer and Senior Scientist for Field Projects International.

I’m also a proud  #sciencemum of several cats, a dog, and two human primates.

View my Publons profile here.

Field Site Co-Director: Gideon Erkenswick Watsa

Gideon is a disease ecologist and geneticist who has been monitoring the primate community at the LACC in Peru for nearly 5 years. Through his work, we now have a clear idea of which parasites these primates host, providing a crucial baseline reading necessary for the detection of future disease outbreaks. Ultimately, his research has close ties to our lab’s interests in survival and fitness. He is also the Treasurer and Senior Research Scientist with Field Projects International. Currently he’s a postdoctoral research scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Jennifer Phillips and Dr. Dave Wang at the Washington University in Saint Louis’s Medical School. Explore his profile here.

Field/Laboratory Research Team

KC Hill

KC is a wildlife veterinarian completing a residency in Texas. He has been on the FPI vet-team for three years now. See his profile here

Ishaan Raghunandan

Ishaan is a conservation technology engineer working on several innovative solutions to specifically conservation problems in the Neotropics. See his profile here

Gustav Steinhardt

Gustav is completing his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley on callitrichid decision making, movement ecology and space use. See his profile here.

Rachel Voyt

Rachel is a Ph.D. candidate at UT Austin in the Di Fiore lab and is working on her thesis research in Peru on callitrichine endocrinology. See her profile here

Samantha Lopez Clinton

Samantha is biologist from Mexico City who worked on genetic screening for trichromacy and imaging of dental wear in callitrichids.  She is currently attending graduate school at Uppsala in Sweden and completing her thesis on population genomics of the Saddleback tamarin, and she hopes to eventually work on habitat conservation and natural resource management in Mexico.

Prior Team Members

Efstathia Robakis 

Effie is an Associate Research Scientist with FPI and completed her PhD on vocal communication, space use, territoriality, and dispersal in sympatric callitrichids at Washington University in Saint Louis. See her profile here.

Alice Poirier

Alice is a Visiting Research Scientist with FPI and is completing her Ph.D. on olfactory communication in callitrichids at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England. See her profile here

Lais Moreira

Lais is completing her doctoral thesis at the University of Calgary, Canada on visual signaling in wild tamarins. See her profile here.

Alexandra Sacco

Alex is completing her Ph.D. at Washington University in Saint Louis. She acquired her Master’s thesis at Central Washington University in 2019 on the correlates of health and physiology in wild tamarins. See her profile here.

Krista Banda

Kris us a Visiting Research Scientist with FPI and has completed her Master’s research on seasonality as a mediator of parasite richness among saddleback tamarins at Central Washington State University. See her profile here

Ana Priscila Peralta Aguilar

Ana is a wildlife veterinarian with an interest in human-wildlife conflicts and a focus on primate behaviour and health.

Giancarlo Inga Diaz

Gian is also a wildlife veterinarian but his interest lies more with avian health.