Carrie Veilleux, Ph.D.

Dr. Veilleux received her Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012. She held several postdoctoral positions following her Ph.D, including at Yale University, as an American Association of University Women Postdoctoral Fellow, at the University of Calgary, and at the University of Texas at Austin. She has also taught as adjunct faculty at Texas State University and the University of Texas at Austin.


Her primary research focus is on factors influencing variation in human and non-human mammal sensory systems, including ecology, demographic factors, and phylogeny. She uses a variety of different methods to investigate variation in sensory systems, including molecular genomics and transcriptomics, behavioral ecology, psychophysics, and comparative anatomy. Some of her previous projects have (1) explored the role of variation in color vision on foraging behavior in sifaka lemurs in western Madagascar, (2) evaluated how diet, activity pattern, and running speed influence visual acuity across mammals, and (3) investigated genomic signatures of functional variation in olfactory and taste receptor genes in human hunter-gatherer and agricultural populations. She has performed fieldwork in Madagascar and Costa Rica.


Her current research projects include investigating (1) genotype-phenotype relationships between gene expression and mechanoreceptor densities in the skin; (2) the effects of aging on sensory anatomy and gene expression, and (3) effects of ecology (diet, arboreality) on mechanoreceptor gene expression and anatomy. Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YEXn9YsAAAAJ&hl=en

Personal website: www.carriecveilleux.com