Samantha Vee

Matriculated September 2022

Research Interests

Great apes, behavioral ecology, life history, endocrinology, energetics, immune function, conservation

About

Samantha is broadly interested in the evolution of great ape life histories. More specifically, she hopes to use noninvasive methods to quantify immune function in wild Bornean orangutans, with the goal of investigating sources of variation in immune function and understanding how energetics mediates the immune response and trades off with other energetically expensive activities like growth and reproduction. Prior to joining Boston University, Samantha received her BS in Cell and Molecular Biology from CUNY Macaulay Honors College at John Jay College in 2020. She also received her MA in Ecology and Evolution from Stony Brook University in 2021, where she investigated the costs and benefits of infant care in Phayre’s leaf monkeys.

Awards & Grants

• BU Center for Innovation in Social Science (CISS) Travel Awards. (Summer 2023).
  
• The Explorers Club Exploration Fund Grant. (Fall 2023).
• Boston University Dean’s Fellowship. (Fall 2022, Spring 2023).

Publications

• Vee, S., Borries, C., Larney, E., & Koenig, A. (2024). Costs and benefits of allomaternal care to mothers and others in wild Phayre’s leaf monkeys. American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 185(3), e25035. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.25035
• Vee, S. (2023). Parental Investment: Sexual Conflict. In Encyclopedia of Sexual Psychology and Behavior. Edited by Shackelford T.K. Springer, Cham.
• Vee, S., Barclay, G., Lents, N.H. (2022). The glow of the night: the tapetum lucidum as a co-adaptation for the inverted retina. BioEssays, 44, e2200003.
• Vee, S., Lents, N.H. (2019). Special Case of Bonobos and Female Counter-Adaptations to Rape. In Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Edited by Shackelford T.K. Springer, Cham.