Addison Kemp is a functional morphologist and biological anthropologist studying the evolution of the visual and vestibular systems in mammals. Experimental work in the lab provides insight into how sensory adaptations impact performance in critical behaviors including foraging, predation and locomotion. Current experiments aim to understand the importance of early primate visual adaptations through work with tree shrews, species which are ecologically and morphologically similar to some of the earliest fossil primates. Related comparative morphological analyses use micro-CT data from both extant museum specimens and fossils to understand how mammalian sensory morphology has changed in relation to evolutionary shifts in ecological factors such as habitat, diet, activity pattern, and locomotor mode.

Dr. Kemp received her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, taught anatomy as a postdoctoral associate at Duke University School of Medicine and now teaches gross anatomy to first- and second- year medical students at KSOM. She is a Research Associate in Mammalogy at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.