Monique Borgerhoff Mulder

Monique Borgerhoff Mulder is a Distinguished Research Professor (emerita) at the University of California, Davis, and an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Bristol. She is affiliated with the Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Her research focuses on evolutionary anthropology, with emphasis on family demographics in small-scale societies, sustainable resource management, economic inequality, and social networks. She actively collaborates on projects linking evolutionary theory to applied challenges in developing countries.

Current projects include long-term demographic studies in Mpimbwe (Tanzania), sustainable forest management in Pemba (Zanzibar), and cross-cultural investigations of social networks' impact on inequality. She leads initiatives promoting UN SDGs through East African pastoralist conservancies and analyzing rangeland conditions in Tanzania. Her work also explores reproductive inequality across mammalian species.

Recent publications highlight themes like REDD+ conservation program impacts, forest governance, and the role of social networks in resource management. Her research often integrates interdisciplinary approaches, combining ecological data with anthropological insights to address global sustainability challenges.

Borgerhoff Mulder’s grants and advisory roles include principal investigator positions for projects like Savannas Forever and ENDOW, emphasizing community-based conservation and institutional growth. She collaborates extensively with international teams to advance applied evolutionary anthropology.

Her work is conducted through the Max Planck Institute’s interdisciplinary environment, leveraging partnerships with institutions like the University of Exeter and The Nature Conservancy to address pressing ecological and socio-economic issues.