Jenny Tung

Jenny Tung is the Director of the Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, a Visiting Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Biology at Duke University, and an Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences at Leipzig University. Jenny joined Duke University in 2012 after completing her post-doctoral training in the University of Chicago Department of Human Genetics and her PhD training in the Duke Biology department. She founded the Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution at MPI-EVA in 2022. Research in the department focuses on the intersection between behavior, social structure, and genes. Jenny’s lab is particularly interested in how the social environment influences gene regulation, population genetic structure, and health and survival across the life course. We primarily pursue these questions in nonhuman primates and other social mammals, both wild and captive.