Harvard grad searches for knowledge in what lemurs leave behind
This is one in a series of profiles showcasing some of Harvard’s stellar graduates. It was just poop, but it was something of a dream come true for Camille DeSisto. The Harvard College senior loves travel and the environment, so spending two summers in Madagascar’s tropical forests studying invasive plant dispersal — the island nation’s lemurs eat the plants’ fruit and poop out the seeds — was exciting and, just a few years earlier, had been unimaginable to her. “I’ve always been so interested in the environment — in conservation in particular,” DeSisto said. “But I never dreamed I would have done research in tropical forests with lemurs.” DeSisto, an organismic and evolutionary biology concentrator from Pforzheimer House, did more than just follow lemurs through a forest. She directed an independent field crew, supported by funding from Harvard and outside sources, over the course of those summers. They surveyed forest tracts to assess the...