Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf, Ph.D

I began studying primates as an undergraduate student at Duke University, where I conducted research on percussive foraging in the highly endangered Aye-aye at the Duke Lemur Center.  After a brief foray into marine mammal cognition, I completed my Ph.D. at the Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies at the University of Minnesota, focusing on sex differences in the development of tool-use skills in the wild chimpanzees of Gombe National Park.  I then moved on to Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo and was the founding director of the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes from 2004-2012. In the fall of 2012, I joined the Psychology Department at Franklin & Marshall College and in July of 2022, I joined the Department of Anthropology at Emory University. I return to Gombe annually to maintain a research program focused on the interplay of health and development in wild chimpanzees. I am also a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, a member of the Board of Directors for Chimp Haven, the National Chimpanzee Sanctuary, and the former Vice President for Education and Outreach for the International Primatological Society.