Mimi Arandjelovic

Mimi Arandjelovic is a biologist whose research focuses on non-invasive methods for studying and conserving wild animal populations. She is co-director of the Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee (PanAf), a research consortium focused on studying chimpanzee ecology and evolution from all four chimpanzee subspecies from over 40 temporary research sites across Africa. The PanAf takes a collaborative, holistic approach to studying chimpanzee culture and behaviour and combines modern approaches like video camera traps and samples for genetic, microbiotic, pathogenic and isotopic analyses with traditional field approaches such as transects, phenology and habitat structure.

Her current role as staff scientist in the Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology is focused on improving methods for extracting and amplifying DNA from non-invasive wildlife samples for high throughput sequencing, with the hopes of developing workflows for DNA analysis on-site, in primate range countries.