Prof. Paul R. Manger

University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Under the leadership of Prof. Paul Manger of the School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, a team of highly diverse and skilled senior and junior scientists from across the globe will dedicate themselves to undertaking the proposed project, each with clearly defined goals and responsibilities. Paul’s research focuses on the evolution of brain and behaviour – evolutionary neuroethology – of African mammals. He, his colleagues, and postgraduate students examine the structure of African and other mammal brains to investigate how brains change and how they stay the same in different phylogenetic lineages and in mammals showing major morphological variations. Paul’s laboratory has examined brains from very small mammals (such as Mus minutoides, with a brain weighing in at 275 mg) through to the brains of African elephants (which weigh in at around 5 kg). These studies are building a fundamental understanding of the processes of brain evolution and how they relate to behaviour in the mammals. In addition, the laboratory investigates sleep in free-roaming mammals, and uses sleep as a key behaviour that can be related to evolution of the structure of the brain. This line of research is providing numerous novel understandings of the brain and behaviour in mammals and has produced the information leading to the conceptualization of Project Plains Zebra. Paul is Field Editor for the newly launched journal Frontiers in Mammal Science.

Dr Ayanda Ngwenya	Dr Illke Malungo	Dr Joshua Davimes

School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Ayanda, Illke and Josh are emerging African scientists, all of whom recently obtained their Doctorates through the University of the Witwatersrand. Ayanda, Illke, and Josh are all lecturers in human anatomy, teaching a range of courses to a range of both health and science students. Between them they have research expertise in quantitative neuroanatomy based on immunohistochemical and Golgi staining, as well in the physiology of sleep in larger, free-roaming mammals. These skill sets will allow them to provide significant inputs to the research planned for Project Plains Zebra. In addition, all three have a strong dedication to research that can help to prevent the decline of the planet’s ecosystems.

Prof. Scott Hazelhurst	Mr. Shaun Aron

Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Dr. Adhil Bhagwandin

University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Dr Bhagwandin is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Clinical Anatomy and Biological Anthropology, University of Cape Town. After graduating from the University of the Witwatersrand, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Moscow State University. Adhil was an awardee of a Research Career Award from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa that he undertook at the University of the Witwatersrand. Adhil’s research interests focus upon comparative neuroanatomy, specifically the neuroanatomy of the sleep-wake system, using electrophysiological, immunohistochemical, and stereological techniques. Adhil has also earned a diploma in large project management.

Dr João Paulo Coimbra

Department of Human Anatomy and Physiology, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

JP is a biologist with a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences (Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil), a Masters in Neuroscience and Cell Biology (Federal University of Pará, Brazil) and a PhD in Neuroscience and Animal Biology (University of Western Australia, Australia). JP is a Senior Lecturer and is interested in understanding how animals see the world. Using the state-of-the-art histological, immunohistochemical, and quantitative methods for spatial analysis, JP maps the distribution of neuronal density in the retina of vertebrates. The main drive of this research is to identify similarities and variations in the retinal structure of different species to ultimately understand how vision relates to behavior, ecology and evolution with potential applications to veterinary ophthalmology and conservation.

Dr Micheal Chase and Ms. Kelly Landen, Elephants Without Borders, Kasane, Botswana.

Dr Ngalla Jillani

Institute for Primate Research, Nairobi, Kenya.

Jillani graduated with a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand, and holds a Masters degree in anthropology from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Jillani is currently a Senior Research Scientist at the IPR, and is active in both field and laboratory research in the biological sciences. Jillani has initiated and implemented collaborative research programs with local and international peers resulting into several publications in highly respected scientific journals.

Prof. Nigel Bennett

Department of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Nigel C Bennett is a professor of zoology at the University of Pretoria (UP) and also occupies the Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation (NRF) Research Chair in the field of Mammalian Behavioural Ecology and Physiology and the UP Austin Roberts Chair of African Mammalogy. Nigel’s research focus is on ecology, animal physiology and behaviour, investigating the ecological and physiological factors that affect the control of reproduction and the evolution of sociality. Nigel obtained his BSc Hons. from the University of Bristol and PhD at the University of Cape Town. Nigel is a fellow of the Zoological Society of London, a fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, a member of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa and an honorary member of the American Society of Mammalogists.  Nigel is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Zoology, London and a past editor of Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Biological Sciences B.

Prof. Andre Ganswindt

Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Andre is a Professor and the Director of the Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, and occupies the Oppenheimer Chair for emerging African Scientists in Non-invasive Wildlife Research. Andre is a behavioural endocrinologist with a research focus on regulative endocrine mechanisms related to reproductive function and responses to stressors in captive and free-ranging wildlife. Andre graduated as an engineer in Biotechnology at the Berlin International University of Applied Sciences and received his PhD in Biology from the University of Muenster, Germany. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, the Elephant Specialist Advisory Group – South Africa, the International Society for Behavioral Ecology, the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, as well as the Ethologische Gesellschaft. Andre is currently the president of the Zoological Society of Sothern Africa and the former Chair of the International Society for Wildlife Endocrinology. Andre has published 170 peer-reviewed articles, is an Associate Editor of Royal Society Open Science and African Zoology, a topic editor for Diversity, and a review editor for Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience, Frontiers in Experimental Endocrinology and Frontiers in Mammal Science.

Dr Andrea Webster

Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Andrea is a postdoctoral fellow with the Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria and is a recipient of the University of Pretoria/Oppenheimer Chair for emerging African Scientists in Non-invasive Wildlife Research Scholarship co-funded postdoctoral fellowship. Following a BSc in wildlife management, an MSc in Veterinary Science with a focus on large carnivore behavioural endocrinology, Andrea completed a PhD in ecotoxicology where she assessed heavy metal concentrations in wildlife living in mesic and semi-arid savannas. Her research is multi-disciplinary and applies non-invasive techniques to investigate environmental health and management related issues in free-ranging African wildlife. Andrea was recently awarded a training scholarship to the Marine Biological Laboratory in the US, is a member of the International Society of Wildlife Endocrinology, a review editor for Frontiers in Mammal Science, and an invited editor for a special issue of Behavioural endocrinology: Applications for wildlife endocrinology. 

Prof. Suzana Herculano-Houzel

Departments of Psychology and Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, USA.

Suzana is a biologist and neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University, in the Departments of Psychology and Biological Sciences. Suzana’s research focuses on understanding the roots and consequences of brain diversity: what different brains are made of, what that matters in terms of cognition, energy cost, and longevity, and how the human brain is remarkable, but not special, in its makeup. A major lesson learned from her work is that brains are not optimized machines, “perfected” through evolution; to Suzana, the multiple ways how brains of birds, primates, and all other sorts of mammals tiny and large are put together are evidence that evolution is not “improvement by adaptation through natural selection”, but rather “ever-increasing diversity through whatever works”. Suzana has spoken at TEDGlobal 2013 and TEDxNashville 2018 and is an avid communicator of science to the general public. 

Prof. Chet Sherwood

Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, USA.

Chet Sherwood is a biological anthropologist and neuroscientist who studies brain evolution in primates and other mammals. Chet graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and anthropology, then attended New York University for a master’s degree in education, and afterwards completed his Ph.D. in anthropology at Columbia University in 2003. Chet is currently a Professor of Anthropology at The George Washington University, was a recipient of a James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholar Award in 2012, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences USA in 2021. 

Prof. Muhammad Spocter

Des Moines University, USA.

Muhammad is a Professor of Anatomy and the Director of the Anatomy Graduate Program at Des Moines University (Iowa, USA), where he is actively engaged in research on the mammalian brain. He is specifically engaged in helping us to better understand the effect of domestication on the mammalian brain. Muhammad completed his undergraduate and postgraduate training at the University of Witwatersrand, followed by postdoctoral training at George Washington University. He serves on several scientific boards including the Science Center of Iowa, Ape Cognition and Conservation Initiative, Iowa Academy of Science and is the Principal Executive Officer of the J.B. Johnston Club for Evolutionary Neuroscience. 

Prof. Jerry Siegel

Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

Jerry Siegel is Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA, former President of the Sleep Research Society, the recipient of MERIT and Javits awards from NIH and the Distinguished Scientist award from the Sleep Research Society. His laboratory has made discoveries concerning the role of the peptide hypocretin in human narcolepsy and Parkinson’s disease.  This work has highlighted the role of this peptide in the control of arousal by emotion. He has studied the phylogeny of sleep as a clue to sleep function, discovering that the primitive mammal platypus has REM sleep and that marine mammals can go without extended periods of sleep for long periods without ill effects. This work has led him to propose the Adaptive Theory of Sleep.”  This theory explains variations in the amounts of sleep across species in terms of adaptation to environmental demands rather than in terms of regulation of brain function. 

Prof. Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam	Dr Keerthi Ram	Prof. Jayaraj Joseph

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India

Mohan is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering with over two decades of experience creating different types of medical devices. He heads IITM’s Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre that develops and deploys affordable healthcare technologies in collaboration with clinicians and industry. Mohan recently set up IITM’s Brain Centre for whole brain imaging at cellular resolution through a custom engineered brains-to-data platform. 

Keerthi Ram, a lead engineer, loves applying his computing skills to almost anything. In the past decade he has been heading medical image computing at IITM’s Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre dealing with analysis of medical images from various organs and modalities – retinal cameras, spine and brain MRI, large format histology images of whole brains, abdominal, foetal and cardiac ultrasound.

Jayaraj is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering. Prior to that he was the Chief Technologist at IITM’s Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre. Jayaraj is passionate in developing healthcare technologies that scale into the field. He primarily works on novel sensing technologies, intelligent signal processing and automated measurement algorithms, and system design for medical devices.

Prof. Abdulaziz Alagaili

Department of Zoology, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.

Aziz has been involved in zoological research for 20 years, focusing on biology, ecology, and distribution of mammals, with his PhD dissertation focused on the bats of Saudi Arabia. Aziz has been surveying wild mammals in Saudi Arabia using satellite tracking of various mammals of different sizes, examining Enterotoxaemia in livestock in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and studying zoonotic diseases such as toxoplasmosis, Q fever, brucellosis, rabies, and coronaviruses in mammals. Aziz has extensive fieldwork experience in wild and domesticated animals.

Prof. Simon Eickoff

Institute of Brain and Behaviour, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany.

Simon Eickhoff is a full professor and chair of the Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the Heinrich-Heine University in Düsseldorf and the director of the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7, Brain and Behavior) at the Forschungszentrum Jülich. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Science Institute of Automation. Simon works at the interface between neuroanatomy, data-science and brain medicine. This goal is pursued by the development and application of novel analysis tools and approaches for large-scale, multi-modal analysis of brain structure, function and connectivity as well as by machine-learning for single subject prediction of cognitive and socio-affective traits.

Prof. Mads Bertelsen

Centre for Zoo and Wild Animal Health, Copenhagen Zoo, Denmark.

Mads is an Adjunct Professor of zoological medicine at the University of Copenhagen and the zoological director of Copenhagen Zoo, Frederiksberg, Denmark. Mads received his DVM from The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University of Denmark in 1998 and his DVSc from the University of Guelph, Canada in 2003. Since then, he has worked as a veterinarian and researcher at the Copenhagen Zoo. His main research interests are anaesthesiology and comparative physiology. In the field his projects have spanned critters such as giraffes and lions through to walruses and musk ox. Mads is an elected member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, and a diplomate of both the European and American colleges of zoological medicine. His current research focuses on animal adaptation and the impact of global warming on animal ecology and he has published over 200 papers in international peer reviewed journals.

Prof. Rogier Mars

University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

Rogier graduated (with highest honours) from the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior. Today he is head of the Cognitive Neuroecology Lab at the University of Oxford and the Donders Institute. His research concentrates on large-scale organization of the mammalian brain. Rogier has pioneered approaches to compare brains of different species, identifying, among many others, some of the pathways in the human brain that underlie certain of our specific behaviours, such as language.

Dr Micheal Scantlebury

School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, Ireland.

Michael Scantlebury is a Reader in Physiological Ecology at Queen’s University Belfast. After studying zoology at Oxford, he undertook a PhD at Aberdeen. Subsequent research has involved determining physiological characteristics of wild animals and relating this to adaptations to the biotic and abiotic environment. Recent work has used various animal-borne loggers to determine movements, behaviours, and activity energy-expenditures of wild animals to elucidate their interactions with habitat features and the environment, with additional aims of understanding how individuals and populations might survive in encroaching climate change. 

Prof. Menno Witter, Kavali Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.

Menno received his Ph.D. in 1985 at the VU University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where he subsequently started his independent research on the anatomical organization of the hippocampal region. Menno moved to the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in 2007, continuing a productive collaboration with May-Britt and Edvard Moser that started in 2000, leading to the discovery of grid cells, for which the Mosers were awarded the Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2014. He is an elected member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, and The Norwegian Academy of Science. In early 2022, he received an Honorary Doctorate from UC Louvain in Belgium. His current research focusses on the structural neurobiology of the entorhinal cortex and their contributions to learning and memory and the initiation of Alzheimer’s disease.

Mr. Charlie Luckock (https://www.charlieluckock.com/), Cape Town, South Africa.

Theta Films is a specialist documentary production company driven by a passion to tell stories and a desire to spark the imagination. Theta’s talented team of filmmakers combine a high-quality cinematic style with raw emotion to reveal planet earth, and the lives of those living on it, in a way that is both imaginative and inspiring, captivating, and critical. They are focused on producing high-end non-fiction – series, feature docs and shorts – for film, television, and digital platforms. Theta is headed up by Charlie Luckock, an award-winning documentary filmmaker who, over an 18-year career, has produced more than 70 hours of content for international broadcasters including the BBC, National Geographic, Disney+, the Discovery Channel, Smithsonian Earth, Showmax, and Sky Nature. Charlie’s films have won several awards including ‘Best International Documentary’ at the Jozi Film Festival, ‘Best Humans & Nature Film’ at the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in New York, ‘Best Feature’ at the British Documentary Festival in London, and ‘Best People & Nature Film’ at the International Wildlife Film Festival.

Mr. Tony Meadows, School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.