Netzin G. Steklis holds a B.A. in Anthropology and Biology from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University, and a PhD in Psychology from the Ethology & Evolutionary Psychology program at the University of Arizona.
For more than 10 years, Netzin served as the Director of Scientific Information Resources for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, a non-profit organization dedicated to gorilla research and conservation in Africa. For the past 7 years she has worked for the University of Arizona as an instructor (in Anthropology and Family Studies & Human Development) and research scientist. She often collaborates with her husband, H. Dieter Steklis, on research projects and as course co-instructors. Their work has been featured in national and international magazines, radio programs, and numerous television broadcasts (including National Geographic).
Netzin’s research experience includes baboon affiliative behavior, field study of howler monkey calls in Costa Rica, the behavioral ecology of wild chimpanzees in eastern Zaire, and research at the Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda on the social organization of mountain gorillas, including studies on vocal communication, demography, and life history. She is currently interested in the comparative study of primate families and paternal care (especially play), gorilla personality and life history, the comparative study of emotional awareness, the biopsychology of human-animal interactions, as well as conservation and environmental education.
