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 fall 1984. Before arriving at Loyola, he served as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, for two years. Zucker received his B.S. in Psychology with honors from the University of Maryland, College Park, in December 1974. He then earned an M.A. in Experimental Psychology in 1980 and a Ph.D. in Biopsychology in 1983 from Emory University, conducting his doctoral research at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, now part of Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Zucker's research examines social interactions and life histories of adult nonhuman primates, investigating proximate and ultimate explanations of behavior. His studies span species including orangutans, gorillas, howling monkeys, and Old World monkeys such as diana, patas, green, rhesus, pigtailed, crab-eating monkeys, olive baboons, and red-capped mangabeys, conducted in research laboratories, primate centers, zoos, and field sites. Recent projects include matrilineal rank in relation to reproductive and life history variables in rhesus monkeys and health indices in wild black howling monkeys in southeastern Mexico tied to social and ecological factors. He describes his interests with the acronym SHEEP: Social, Health, Environmental, and Evolutionary Psychology. Zucker has edited two books, such as Celebrating the career of Terry L. Maple: A festschrift (2014, with M. P. Hoff and M. A. Bloomsmith), and published approximately 50 articles and book chapters. Key publications include "Putting comparative psychology into a History and Systems of Psychology course" (2018, International Journal of Comparative Psychology), "Behavior and endocrine concentrations do not distinguish sex in monomorphic juvenile howlers (Alouatta palliata)" (2007, American Journal of Primatology), and "Longitudinal assessment of immature-to-adult ratios in two groups of Costa Rican Alouatta palliata" (2003, International Journal of Primatology). He has delivered over 130 presentations at professional conferences and served on editorial boards for the American Journal of Primatology and Zoo Biology, while reviewing for these and other journals including the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research. At Loyola, he teaches Behavioral Neuroscience (with laboratory), Health Psychology, Environmental Psychology, and Psychopharmacology, oversees Senior Research and Senior Thesis courses, and occasionally instructs Statistics and Methods and Introduction to Research.