About

Learn more about me

A biological anthropologist with a computational bend

I am a PhD student in Biological Anthropology at University of Iowa. I use computational methods to explore macroevolutionary trends across primates with a particular emphasis on the interactions between nervous system evolution, diet and energetics. I'm also committed to science communication and I focus my efforts in rural Iowa where I grew up.

Although I've dedicated my career to the study of primates, I've lived my whole life in awe of nature. I love Iowa prairie, and support efforts for prairie restoration, and I enjoy attempting to identify mushrooms, birds, bugs and plants (with varying degrees of success). I'm constantly trying new things. My dad joke is my favorite hobby is cycling through new hobbies! I enjoy mentorship and learning from my mentees. I've joined efforts to uplift Iowa by volunteering in campaigns for Iowa legislative candidates who prioritize increasing education funding, supporting small farms/businesses, reproductive justice, trans rights and investing in rural spaces.

Personal Interests

My favorite things

roller_skating

Roller Bladding

forest

Foraging

brunch_dining

Brunch

local_florist

Prairie Restoration

local_cafe

Coffee

dark_mode

Screens in Dark Mode

kayaking

Kayaking

thunderstorm

Rainy Weather

hiking

Hiking

storefront

Thrifting

downhill_skiing

Skiing

sports_basketball

Iowa Women's Basketball

Research

Computational anthropology

Computational approaches to primate evolution

I'm deeply interested in the radiation of primates, sensory and nervous system evolution, diet/energetics in supporting expensive tissues, primate genomics and comparative analysis for insight into macroevolutionary trends. Some of my current projects include:

  • Relative importance of meat and fat digestion genes across primates
  • Applicability of ambush hypothesis regarding out-of-frame stop codons to primate genomes
  • Examining selection in taste receptor genes, specifically the umami receptor
  • Understanding carnivory, cooking, and scavenging through parasites

I take a computational approach to these questions and I have experience writing iterative scripts and analyzing data in R, generating maximum likelihood trees in PAUP, running gene selection analyses in PAML and HyPhy, submitting jobs to high performance computing clusters, and using the version control system Git. My research typically analyzes genetic data, although I enjoy projects employing web-scrapping methods to create larger datasets of morphological, geographic and/or behavioral data to inform macroevolutionary trends across primates.

Research Interests

Topics of Interest

Gene Selection

Primate Evolution

Phylogenetics

Nervous System Evolution

Diet & Energetics

computer

Web Scraping

Scientific Reproducibility

Genome Structure

visibility

Sensory Evolution

Macroevolution

Cartography

Machine Learning

SciComm

Science Communication

Towards more equitable Iowa science education

I graduated from CAM High School, which is a very small consolidated high school in rural Iowa. Iowa's public education system is not adequately funded and this has a severe impact on rural Iowan students. I use science communication to help address some of this educational inequity.

Currently, I design and led a workshop series at my hometown school district to increase exposure to critical topics in biology. I also pursue projects which help to communiate the critical state of Iowa education such as the map series linked below.

Workshop Series

Science Workshop Series

I design accessible, fun workshops where high school and middle school students can interact with data, videos and other materials to learn about key topics in biology. Too much of science communication is unnecessarily jargon heavy and, frankly, not fun. But creativity shouldn't be divorced from science! These workshops prioritize interactivity and discussion, as well as provide space for creative thinking in problem solving. I choose to prioritize topics that are frequently misunderstood by the public such as fundamentals of evolution, reproductive variation, the bad science of IQ, and so on. I conduct these workshops at my hometown school district twice per year.

Transparency and sharing are important to me. I have linked the workshop plans I developed for these workshops below, so they can be viewed by the public and other researchers who share my goals in their science engagement.

  • Fall 2024: In Development

Educational Inequity in Iowa

View Iowa Education in Maps

Why is science engagement in rural Iowa critical? I created a series of maps to explore poverty, resource allocation and educational outcomes across Iowa counties. All data used in these maps was publicly available from sources such as Iowa Department of Education, Iowa State University, and USDA.

Click the map icon or title to interact with these maps.
Please note: the education by county maps load slowly but do work!

grass

Intro to Iowa

This first interactive map shows the relationship between income, agriculture and ruralness in Iowa. Consider this map as you move through the following maps.

school

Education by County

This second map is actually a collection of interactive maps which depict the different levels of education, graduation rates and ACT scores associated with each Iowa county.

savings

Money vs ACT Scores

Finally, this last map is a collection of bivariate maps which ask: is ACT performance associated with school spending per student and/or the percent of students in poverty at a school?

Latham Fellows

Science communication as a Latham Fellow

In 2019-2020, I served as a Latham Fellow at University of Iowa. The Latham Fellows Initiative is a program supervised by Brinda Shetty, M.S. and Lori Adams, Ph.D. which trains undergraduate researchers in the skills necessary for effective science communication. I consider my time as a Latham Fellow to be pivotal to my development as a science communicator. It taught me that science communication can be many things such as a podcast, an interactive game or a fun event for the public, but that it should always be crafted to the audience in mind. During my time as a Latham Fellow, I completed two science communication projects.

I collaborated with two pre-medical students to create a pamphlet for the Iowa City public which addressed medical discrimination. This pamphlet blended peer reviewed research and personal insight from chronically ill individuals to create a list of actions a person can take if they suspect medical discrimination. These pamphlets were shared with local hospitals and other public spaces in Iowa City.

Independently, I was inspired by the interactivity of games which motivated me to create a children's game called Build a Superhero. This game used research on modern human adaptations to teach children how human variation can have adaptive "superhero" advantages in an environment. I built this game, shown on the left, and shared it at Iowa City's Science Fest.

CV

Curriculum Vitae

This page shows my educational history and current activities. If you would like to see my complete academic history, please view my CV below.

Recent Work

Education and Current Activities

Education

MA in Biological Anthropology

2022 - Current

University of Iowa

B.S. in Anthropology
B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies

2016 - 2020

University of Iowa

With Distinction
University Honors
Honors in Anthropology

Current Activities

Researcher at Evolutionary Anthropology Lab

2022 - Current
2019 - 2020

PI: Andrew Kitchen, Ph.D.

To see current projects, check out my Research page! Learn more about the Evolutionary Anthropology Lab here.

Science Communicator at CAM High School

2023 - Current

Developed and led by myself. Details on my SciComm page.

Teaching Assistant for Human Origins

2022 - Current

Supervisors: Andrew Kitchen, Ph.D. and Robert Franciscus, Ph.D.

Contact

Contact Me

Email Me

mackenzie-cross@uiowa.edu

Social Profiles

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