Elodie Freymann

My name is Elodie Freymann and I am a New York-born, Rhode Island-based scientist and storyteller. In 2019 I took a break from the film world, where I worked as an art director, assistant producer, and freelance graphic designer to begin a MSc in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford. I liked it so much I stayed on for a Ph.D. My research focused on how wild chimpanzees self-medicate with medicinal plants. This brought together my interests in primatology, botany, social anthropology, filmmaking, scientific illustration, and conservation. Over the course of nine-months living in Uganda's Budongo Forest, I worked with two communities of wild chimpanzees, following them each day, recording their behaviors, and learning as much as I could about the ecology of their habitats. I also conducted a series of ethnomedicinal interviews with traditional healers, and collected plants for pharmacological testing.​​ Along the way, with the help of a storytelling grant from The Explorers Club, I was able to document my research through filmmaking and scientific illustration. 

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Now, as a Voss post-doctoral fellow at Brown University, I'm working on the first systematic study of non-human self-medication in the Central Peruvian Amazon. In collaboration with an incredible team, we are exploring new methods and multispecies approaches to studying the many wild medicine-makers with whom we share our planet. 

 

In addition to trying to identify new animal self-medication behaviors I am also developing new ways to protect the medicines animals need to stay healthy in the wild. As part of this mission, I have partnered with Fauna & Flora as a Nature Champions Network ambassador and recently begun a year-long fellowship with The More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program.​​

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Across my work, I blend science and art to communicate complex ideas through visually engaging media. I focus on documenting how people interact and coexist with surrounding flora and fauna—and how human-driven disturbances disrupt these relationships. Unfortunately, however, the scientific community has largely excluded the voices of local scientists, field staff, and rangers, limiting their ability to tell their own stories. In response, I co-founded The Perspectives Collective Journal in 2022, a platform dedicated to amplifying the ecological knowledge and expertise of wildlife field staff.

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I am honored to have received several awards for my work, including the 2026 New Explorers Award from the Explorers Club. I am also a proud member of the The Explorer Club's EC50 class of 2025 and a Fellow at both The Explorers Club and The Linnean Society. 

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