Cheryl Knott

Focusing on orangutan behavior and biology to further our understanding of endangered great apes, biological anthropologist Cheryl Knott also uses her work as a model for looking at human evolution. Knott earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University in anthropology, where she served as an associate professor until 2008 before joining the faculty of Boston University, where she is a core faculty member in the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies program. She is also the founder and executive director of the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Project, which is responsible for one of the longest-running studies of wild orangutans.