Andie Zou recently earned a bachelor’s degree in ecology, evolution, and natural resources with a certificate in environmental geomatics from Rutgers University.

She is dedicated to wildlife conservation as well as science communication, and her research interests include parasitology, animal behavior, habitat selection, and ecological impacts of anthropogenic change.

With the Fulbright US Student Research Program, she will study the intestinal parasite prevalence in Bornean orangutans in relation to sex and habitat. This research will be conducted at the Tuanan Orangutan Research Station in Central Kalimantan in collaboration with Universitas Nasional in Jakarta. The Mawas Conservation Area, where the field station is located, has been subjected to selective logging and severe wildfires, which have significantly altered this peat swamp forest. Andie’s research will explore whether or not the changing landscape has impacted the transmission of parasites to a critically endangered species, including behavioral and spatial factors to examine this question.