[3] She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences,[6] and a member of the American Philosophical Society (2020)[7] Jeanne Altmann started her undergraduate degree at UCLA as a mathematics major.
[6] Altmann is known for her involvement with the creation and development of the Amboseli Baboon Research Project,[9] which counts its official start in 1971, following a preliminary field study in 1963-4.
[4][6] She came up with a protocol that standardized data collection in the field, helping protect against individual bias and making comparative studies easier.
Instead of relying on a rotating group of Western researchers, Altmann hired a member of the local Maasai community and other Kenyans to make observations, manage lab samples, and educate assistants year-round.
[11] According to historian Georgia M. Montgomery, Altmann's directorship of the Baboon Project and her extensive publication record have "led to his status as a leader in animal behavior studies.
[3][4] Altmann's research specifically looks at the behavioural ecology of baboons that range in and near Amboseli National Park, Kenya.
With collaborators Susan Alberts, Elizabeth Archie, and Jenny Tung, Altmann's research interests have included demography, the mother-infant relationship, behavioral ecology and endocrinology, the evolution of social behavior, aging, sexual selection, disease ecology, and functional genomics.