Rate My Professor Evan Zucker

Evan L. Zucker is Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Department of Psychological Sciences at Loyola University New Orleans, a position he has held since joining the institution in the fall of 1984. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with honors from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1974, a Master of Arts degree in Experimental Psychology from Emory University in 1980, and a Ph.D. in Biopsychology from Emory University in 1983, with doctoral research conducted at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine. Prior to Loyola, Zucker served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, for two years.

Zucker's research examines social interactions and life histories of adult nonhuman primates, addressing proximate and ultimate explanations of behavior in species including orangutans, gorillas, howler monkeys, and various Old World monkeys such as rhesus, patas, and baboons. Studies have been conducted in laboratories, primate centers, zoos, and field sites. Recent work investigates matrilineal rank in relation to reproductive and life history variables in rhesus monkeys and health indices in wild black howler monkeys in southeastern Mexico related to social, ecological, and environmental factors. He encapsulates his interests with the acronym SHEEP: Social, Health, Environmental, and Evolutionary Psychology. Zucker has edited two books, published approximately 50 articles and book chapters, and presented over 130 papers and posters at professional conferences. Representative publications include "Putting comparative psychology into a History and Systems of Psychology course" (International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 2018); co-edited Celebrating the career of Terry L. Maple: A festschrift (2014); and articles such as "Agonistic and affiliative relationships among adult female howlers (Alouatta palliata) in Costa Rica over a 4-year period" (International Journal of Primatology, 1998), "Infant-nonmother interactions of mantled howler infants with group members" (International Journal of Primatology, 1998), and "Behavior and endocrine concentrations do not distinguish sex in monomorphic juvenile howlers (Alouatta palliata)" (American Journal of Primatology, 2007). He has served on the editorial boards of American Journal of Primatology and Zoo Biology and continues to review for these and other journals, including the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research. Zucker regularly teaches Behavioral Neuroscience (with laboratory), Health Psychology, Environmental Psychology, Psychopharmacology, and oversees Senior Research and Senior Thesis courses.