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Erica van de Waal is Professor at the Sense Center for Research and Innovation and leads a long-term research program on wild primates in South Africa.

She completed her studies and PhD in Biology at the University of Neuchâtel and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of St Andrews before establishing her own research group in Switzerland.

She is the founder and director of the INKAWU Vervet Project, studying behaviour and cognition in wild vervet monkeys. Her research focuses on the evolution of sociality and the dominance between the sexes.

Motivation:
Interdisciplinary research and scientific curiosity connect me to gender medicine

Johanna Stärk is an evolutionary demographer at the Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

She completed her Master’s degree in Neurobiology and Behavior at Freie Universität Berlin and earned her PhD at the Max Planck Centre on the Biodemography of Ageing in Odense, Denmark.

Her research investigates the evolutionary origins of ageing across the tree of life, using demographic models to understand why species and sexes differ age differently. She examines how evolutionary constraints shape aging trajectories, how aging responds to environmental variation, and what distinguishes human aging from that of other species.

Motivation:

As a biologist, I am fascinated by the diversity of sex roles across species and the complex interplay of biology and society in shaping human gender. Personally, I am committed to advancing inclusive research and healthcare that moves beyond binary frameworks and reflects the full spectrum of sex and gender.