Aleksey Maro

I am a finishing Ph.D. student in the Dudley Lab at the Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley. The title of my thesis is: Towards a wild fermentation ecology: alcohol within floral nectar and the frugivorous diet of chimpanzees. The first chapter of my thesis, titled Ethanol ingestion via frugivory in wild chimpanzees, was published in Science Advances (see Publications), and received global press coverage (see Talks and interviews). The second chapter, titled Urinary concentrations of a direct ethanol metabolite indicate substantial ingestion of fermenting fruit by chimpanzees was recently accepted for publication in Biology Letters. Another chapter titled Low-level ethanol is widespread within floral nectar was just accepted for publication in the journal Royal Society Open Science. Future interests include field research on the fermentation ecology of wild fruit and research on the origins of directed human alcohol production worldwide using modern and ancient DNA (please see Future research). My career goal is to run a research lab studying human and primate evolution relative to dietary ecology, combining empirical data collected in the field with bioinformatics and microbiological approaches in the lab.

My CV can be found here: [Curriculum Vitae]

Email: alekseymaro@berkeley.edu