Graduate student Evan Cunningham (Advisor: @mebenitez.bsky.social) is also working on field research at the Taboga forest reserve, studying social learning in capuchins.🐵🧠

Undergraduate Jackie Zhou (Advisor: @mebenitez.bsky.social) was awarded the Outstanding Junior Award in Anthropology and participated in capuchin research at the Taboga forest reserve in Costa Rica.

Graduate students Giuliana Centofanti and Amber Shaw (Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Lonsdorf) were awarded a Halle Institute research grant and visited the Gombe Stream Research Centre to study chimpanzees.

Recently, graduate students @nicolefurgala.bsky.social, Federico Sánchez Vargas, and Amber Shaw were awarded Lewis and Clark Expedition grants. Evan Cunningham was also awarded a Leakey Foundation Research Grant. We are so excited to see their research advance!

On April 18th, @sarahkovo.bsky.social (Advisor: @mebenitez.bsky.social) defended her doctoral dissertation “From Conflict to Cohesion: The effect of intergroup competition on affiliation, oxytocin, and group cohesion in wild capuchin monkeys.” We are so proud of all her amazing work!

In May, undergraduates Elise Isakov and Grace Cayless both graduated with their Bachelor's degrees. We'll miss them, but we are so excited to see what they do next!

Also in April, lab members Grace Cayless, Jackie Zhou, and @sarahkovo.bsky.social all received awards for their outstanding work at the Anthropology Honors and Awards Ceremony 🥳

In April, two of our graduate students, @nicolefurgala.bsky.social and Evan Cunningham, successfully advanced to PhD candidacy. Congrats to both on this milestone!

Amber Shaw on causes of mortality in wild chimpanzees

Federico Sánchez Vargas on machine learning methods and primate cognition

Arianna Mistry on reproductive senescence in capuchins

Giuliana Centofanti on orphan chimpanzees in Gombe

Grace Cayless on early life adversity in chimpanzees