Robin Morrison

Robin Morrison is an Ambizione Research Fellow and Group Leader in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Zurich. She leads the Primate Social Evolution Group and is affiliated with the Human Evolutionary Ecology Group. As an Affiliate Scientist at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund’s Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda, she conducts fieldwork on gorilla social behavior and conservation. Her PhD from the University of Cambridge focused on western lowland gorillas in Congo Basin national parks.

Her research investigates gorilla social systems, including dispersal patterns, social relationships, and how these influence fitness and conservation strategies. Current projects include studying the adaptive origins of social flexibility in gorillas, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (2023–2027).

Key research themes include: social behavior evolution, life history processes, disease transmission in social groups, and the role of social networks in mitigating adversity. Her work combines long-term field data with computational models to understand primate social dynamics.

Publications highlight innovative analyses of gorilla group dynamics, survival strategies, and reproductive patterns. Research has demonstrated how social buffering mitigates maternal loss effects and how inter-group interactions shape territorial behavior.

Awards include Ambizione Fellowship status, and her work frequently appears in journals like Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology and Current Biology. She collaborates internationally across field sites in Rwanda, Congo, and Cameroon.