Krista M. Milich Ph.D.

Krista is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. She is a biological anthropologist and primatologist who studies how both the natural and social environment can impact behaviors, physiology, and health.

Krista has a broad research agenda, but her approach to these questions typically uses wild nonhuman primate populations as models that help explain human evolution and adaptation to various social and environmental stressors. She has active research projects studying red colobus monkeys in Uganda and lemurs in Madagascar. Additionally, she is leading a study across several countries in the Americas, looking for reservoirs of Zika Virus in monkey populations in close proximity to humans. She has also conducted research on the rhesus macaques on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico.

On campus, Krista teaches courses in primate behavior and ecology, animal behavioral research at the St. Louis Zoo, and laboratory methods. As part of her research program, Krista conducts laboratory analyses, primarily measuring the hormones found in non-invasively collected biological samples (i.e., poop and pee) as correlates of behaviors observed in the field. Krista trains and mentors graduate and undergraduate students on field and laboratory methods as well as all other aspects of the research process.

Undergirding all of Krista's research is a focus on conservation, and many of her research questions focus on the costs of anthropogenic encroachments onto animal habitats. In addition to her red colobus field work in Kibale National Park, Uganda, she has collaborated with members of the local communities on a conservation project implementing land-use changes that reduce incidents of human-wildlife conflict along the boundary between the communities and the national park.