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Riana Minocher

Doctoral Student

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig  

phone: +49 341 3550 336
e-mail: riana_minocher@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de

office: level 1, room u1.42

Research Interests
Curriculum Vitae
Publications

Research Interests 

I am an evolutionary biologist with broad interests. I have worked on a range of projects on human and non-human primate behaviour and ecology. I am currently particularly interested in the evolutionary processes that create and shape diversity between and within groups. Through my PhD research, I am keen on exploring the dynamics of cultural transmission and learning in human populations, to better understand the diverse patterns of behaviour we observe. 

Curriculum Vitae

Education

2018-presentPhD Candidate,
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, Culture
2018-presentMSc,
Erasmus Mundus Master Programme in Evolutionary Biology (MEME).
Uppsala University, Sweden
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany
2012-2015BASc,
Arts and Sciences, with First Class Honours.
University College London, UK

Research Experience

March-
August 2017
Uppsala University,
with Dr. Katerina Guschanski.
Prepared 16S rRNA libraries for microbial DNA in faecal samples of Grauer’s gorillas; developed lab protocols, bioinformatic pipelines and assessed effects of social group, age, sex and diet on microbial profiles
September 2016-February 2017Emory University,
with Dr. Adrian Jaeggi.
Conducted a study on polygyny in a human cross-cultural sample, implementing phylogenetic comparative methods in R
May-August
2016
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität,
with Dr. Barbara Fruth.
Organised six years of unstructured field observations on indicators of health in two communities of wild bonobos; analysed social and ecological correlates of health issues

Awards and achievements

2015-2017Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Scholarship, funded by the EU
2015Dean’s List for Academic Excellence, University College London (UCL)
2013-2014Best Academic Performance Per Pathway; years 1 and 2 at UCL
2011CIE Outstanding Learner Award - Top in India, Across 5 AS Levels
2011CIE Outstanding Learner Award - Top in India, Literature in English

Related Experience

September-December 2017Divemaster Trainee, Dive Blue Motion/ Luminocean, Banda Islands, Indonesia.
Trained as SSI Divemaster; collected data for Luminocean’s marine conservation research projects
January-March 2016Field Assistant, Gashaka Primate Project, Gashaka-Gumti National Park, Nigeria.
Conducted focal observations of habituated baboons; collected and analysed data on chimpanzee nest trees to calculate decay and reuse rates of sleeping nests
September 2013-July 2015UCL Student Ambassador, University College London, UK.
Conducted workshops and events to help motivate young people to pursue Higher Education, and improve their reading, writing and presentation skills
January-August 2015Personal Tutor, Tavistock Tutors, London, UK.
Privately tutored A-level and GCSE students in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and English

Skills

DataR (proficient), ArcGIS, Python (basic)
LaboratoryDNA library preparation

Languages

EnglishNative
FrenchIntermediate B2

Publications

Michel, A., Minocher, R., Niehoff, P., Li, Y., Nota, K., Gadhvi, M. A., Su, J., Iyer, N., Porter, A., Ngobobo‐As‐Ibungu, U., Binyinyi, E., Nishuli Pekeyake, R., Parducci, L., Caillaud, D., & Guschanski, K. (2023). Isolated Grauer's gorilla populations differ in diet and gut microbiome. Molecular Ecology, 32(23), 6523-6542.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Trumble, B. C., Charifson, M., Kraft, T., Garcia, A. R., Cummings, D. K., Hooper, P., Lea, A. J., Eid Rodriguez, D., Koebele, S. V., Buetow, K., Beheim, B., Minocher, R., Gutierrez, M., Thomas, G. S., Gatz, M., Stieglitz, J., Finch, C. E., Kaplan, H., & Gurven, M. (2023). Apolipoprotein-ε4 is associated with higher fecundity in a natural fertility population. Science Advances, 9(32).
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Minocher, R. (2022). Reproducibility and replication in evolutionary anthropology. PhD Thesis, Universität, Leipzig.
BibTeX   Endnote   

Minocher, R., & Ross, C. T. (2022). Spousal age-gaps, partner preferences, and consequences for well-being in four Colombian communities. Evolution and Human Behavior, 43(5), 394-407.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Redhead, D., Minocher, R., & Deffner, D. (2022). Towards a computational network theory of social groups. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 45: e120, pp. 46-48.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Minocher, R., Atmaca, S., Bavero, C., McElreath, R., & Beheim, B. A. (2021). Estimating the reproducibility of social learning research published between 1955 and 2018. Royal Society Open Science, 8: 210450.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Minocher, R., Duda, P., & Jaeggi, A. V. (2019). Explaining marriage patterns in a globally representative sample through socio-ecology and population history: A Bayesian phylogenetic analysis using a new supertree. Evolution and Human Behavior, 40(2), 176-187.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Minocher, R. and Sommer V. (2017). Why do mothers harm their babies? Evolutionary Perspectives. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 41(4), 335-350.

Sommer, V., Minocher, R. and Lowe, A. (2016). Entry Infanticide. In: Hillary Callan (ed), The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology (12 vol). NJ: Wiley-Blackwell

Presentations

2021Minocher, Riana and Bret Beheim. An evolutionary demographic decomposition of Spanish-speaking among the indigenous Tsimane of Bolivia. Cultural Evolution Society, Sapporo, Japan (held online).
2020Minocher, Riana and Bret Beheim. Reproducibility of social learning research. Animal Behaviour Society (held online).
2019Minocher, Riana and Bret Beheim. Quantifying reproducibility of social learning research. European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association (EHBEA), Toulouse, France.
2018Minocher, Riana and Katerina Guschanski. Ecology and sociality shape the wild primate gut microbiome. EVOLUTION 2018, Montpellier, France.
2017Minocher, Riana, Pavel Duda and Adrian V. Jaeggi. Non-independence in the SCCS: polygyny and the effect of cultural history. European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association (EHBEA), Paris, France.

Invited Talks

2021Minocher, Riana. Corrections to the scientific record: insights from the field of evolutionary anthropology. Panel discussion at Association for Interdisciplinary Meta-Research and Open Science (held online).
2021Minocher, Riana. Challenges to reproducibility of research on the topic of “social learning”. Mini-note at Association for Interdisciplinary Meta-Research and Open Science (held online).
2020Minocher, Riana. Estimating the reproducibility of the social learning research literature, Keynote at Toronto Data Workshop (held online).