Elodie Freymann

My name is Elodie Freymann and I am a New York-born, London-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.

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Along the way, with the help of a storytelling grant from The Explorers Club x Discovery, I've been able to document my research through filmmaking and scientific illustration. Across my work I strive to blend the worlds of science and art to communicate complex ideas through visually engaging mediums. Specifically, I am interested in documenting stories about how people interact and co-exist with the flora and fauna around them - and how anthropogenic disturbances are disrupting these symbiotic relationships. 

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I am honored to have receive several awards for my work, including being part of this year's class of The Explorer Club's EC50. I also serve as a Fellow at both The Explorers Club and The Linnean Society. 

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In late 2025, I will begin a post-doctoral fellowship at Brown University, where I'll be working on the first systematic study of non-human self-medication in the Peruvian Amazon.