Prof. Dr.
Jenny Tung, Ph.D.
Curriculum Vitae
Jenny Tung, born 1982 in Seaford, Delaware, United States, studied Evolutionary Biology at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA. She received her Ph.D. at Duke University investigating the causes and consequences of genetic variation in wild baboons, under the supervision of Susan Alberts and Gregory Wray. She spent her postdoctoral studies investigating the functional genomic signature of genotype and social environment in nonhuman primates, under the supervision of Yoav Gilad at the University of Chicago, Chicago, USA. In 2012, she joined the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology and the Duke Population Research Institute at Duke University. While at Duke, Tung investigated the genetic and genomic consequences of social environmental variation in baboons, rhesus macaques, and other social mammals, as well as the role of behavior in primate hybridization. Tung co-directs the Amboseli Baboon Research Project, one of the longest-running primate field sites in the world. Tung was awarded tenure in 2017. She started her position as a director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, in 2022.
Research Interests
Jenny Tung's research focuses on primate behavior, genetics, and evolution. Tung's Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution will integrate field studies of wild primates with molecular and genetic analysis to understand the patterns and processes that explain primate biodiversity.