Primatologist Karen Strier elected to the American Philosophical Society

“Primatologist Karen Strier elected to the American Philosophical Society The highly selective distinction honors her more than four decades studying and working to protect an endangered monkey species. ​By Alli Watters ​ May 7, 2026 ​ Share this article Strier’s field research in Brazil has created a road map to help the critically endangered northern muriqui survive. Photo: João Marcos Rosa Karen Strier , a Vilas Research Professor and Irven DeVore Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is among the newly elected members of the American Philosophical Society . Her election is in the area of the biological sciences, recognizing the more than 40 years she’s spent in the field researching the critically endangered northern muriqui monkeys in Brazil. Strier joins the oldest learned society in the United States, founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose of “promoting useful knowledge.” The society connects the country’s leading scholars and scientists at semi-annual meetings, provides access to a vast research library and supports ongoing research and discovery. Its election honors extraordinary accomplishments across all academic fields. When Strier started her work in 1982, she didn’t know that her curiosity about the enigmatic primates would lead her to establish an international collaborative research and conservation project that is still ongoing to this day . Closely studying the same populations of monkeys has allowed Strier and her research team to gain detailed knowledge about how muriquis interact with their environment, socialize and live. In addition to expanding theoretical perspective about primate behavioral variation, these critical findings are creating a road map for how to help this species survive, which is essential work since there are fewer than 1,000 individuals of this species in the world. She shares her findings with the Brazilian government and nonprofit organizations to help with conservation efforts. “By establishing forest corridors to connect isolated populations, we can provide the muriquis with the protected routes they need to move freely across the landscape as local conditions change,” Strier wrote in a 2024 essay about the power of persistence in her work. “We have the knowledge we need to save them from extinction; now it is just a question of persistence and a race against time.” Strier joins other prominent UW–Madison figures who have been elected to the American Philosophical Society, including virologist Howard Temin, who also won a Nobel Prize for his work on retroviruses; Verner Suomi, the father of modern meteorology; cultural historian George Mosse; and biochemist Judith Kimble. “This recognition was a huge surprise, and I feel very honored to have been elected,” Strier reflects from Brazil, where she is continuing her work. “It is especially meaningful coming at a time when the value of science is being challenged. But right now, the need for scientific understanding to conserve biodiversity has never been greater.”

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