Linda Vigilant

Linda Vigilant is a Group Leader at the Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. She has been a Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology since January 1999, focusing on genetic analyses of wild primate populations across Africa.

Dr. Vigilant earned her PhD in Genetics from the University of California, Berkeley (1986-1990) and completed her undergraduate studies in Chemical Biology at the same institution with High Honors (1982-1986). Prior to her position at the Max Planck Institute, she held research positions at Penn State University as a Postdoctoral Fellow (1990-1992) and Research Associate (1992-1994, 1997-1998).

Her research focuses on using genetic analyses to address questions on the evolution of humans and other primates, particularly the great apes. She began her career working on the evolution of mitochondrial DNA in human populations. At the MPI-EVA, she has worked collaboratively with field researchers studying primate social behavior. Recently, she has become interested in using large-scale sequencing approaches for understanding the long-term histories of primate populations and seeing the effects of high variance in male reproductive success on patterns of genomic variation.

Dr. Vigilant's extensive publication record demonstrates her expertise in primate genetics, population structure, and evolutionary biology. Her work spans chimpanzee and gorilla population dynamics, reproductive strategies, genetic adaptation, and social behavior across Africa. She has made significant contributions to understanding primate evolution through innovative genetic approaches applied to wild populations.

She serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals, including as Review Editor for the American Journal of Primatology (2014-present), and previously served on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Primatology (2003-2015), American Journal of Physical Anthropology (2006-2010), Primates (2007-2017), and as Topical Editor for Primate Biology (2014-present).