About the PI (Gerry Carter)

Gerry Carter is an Associate Professor at Princeton University, a Freeman Hrabowski Scholar at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Previously, he was a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Department of Collective Behavior, and Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellow. He completed his PhD at University of Maryland and his BSc at Cornell University.

Interests: I love thinking and learning about the evolution and ecology of cooperation, communication, and cognition in both humans and nonhuman animals. I am particularly interested in the evolution of helping in friendship-like relationships. There is a vast global enterprise called “the social sciences” which essentially aims to understand the social lives of humans. A major scientific goal of my life is to better understand the social lives of bats. About 25% of mammals are bats, and my familiarity with their diversity and ecology of bats helps me develop testable questions and hypotheses about them. How common are “social bonds” in bats? What do bats communicate to each other via social calls? How does natural selection shape bat cognition?

I’m also interested in improving access to science and improving the incentive structures of academia. How can we better align the goals of human scientists with the goals of science? Besides my scientific interests, I enjoy rock climbing and caving. My wife Michelle is an organic farmer. I have two kids Jay (born in 2020) and Maple (born 2023).

Service: I serve on the Board of Directors for Bat Conservation International which works to conserve bat populations around the world. I support the missions of several non-profit organizations including 350.org (combating the climate crisis), the World Wildlife Fund (fighting biodiversity loss), Oxfam (ending extreme poverty), Eden Reforestation Projects (planting trees), and Amnesty International (human rights). I’m interested in improving the incentive structures of science and academia. To this end, I support or participate in several organizations. PLOS is the public library of science. ASAPbio promotes transparency and innovation in life science communication. Peer Community In provides a new way of doing peer review. SORTEE is the Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Heterodox Academy aims to increase open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement. Wikimedia Foundation creates free and open knowledge for everyone.