News

The Cognitive Evolution Group celebrated the end of a great year, and our graduating students, with a lab party!

Congratulations to Dr. Cantwell for a great defense talk on her research, entitled “The evolution of executive function in primates: an individual differences approach.”

Lab postdoctoral alum Margaret Bryer recently started a new position as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of Wisconsin. Grad student alum Yiyun Huang started a new mentoring and coordination position at UMich LSA Connect. Lab coordinator alum Natalia Camargo Peña started a posiiton as a PhD student in Anthropology at Stony Brook University. Undergrad alum Nami Kaneko started as a lab manager in the Desrochers Lab at Brown University. Undergrad alum Ariana Mistry recently accepted a position as a lab manager at the APE Lab at Emory University. Congrats all on the new positions!

Tufts alum Charlie MacKenzie and lab undergrad alum Skylar Brodnan recently joined the group as new lab coordinators. Welcome!

Skylar won the Virginia L. Voss Memorial Award for excellence in writing by senior Honors women for her anthropology thesis “Origins of human Cclture: Individual variation and social influence in wild chimpanzee tool use.” Congrats Skylar!

Margaret and Averill presented some of our group’s work on chimpanzee cognition and behavior at the 2023 American Association of Biological Anthropologists conference, and celebrated with our collaborators from the Kibale Chimpanzee Project!

The Cognitive Evolution Group celebrated the end of a great year, and our graduating seniors, with a lab party!

Chase, Howard, and Lila presented their projects at the annual Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Symposium. Congrats to the students and their mentors Averill, Natalie, and Margaret for a great year!

Congrats to Rosa!

Margaret, Averill, Natalia, Yiyun, Natalie, and Isabelle all presented their work at the recent Midwestern Primatology Interest Group meeting at the University of Michigan.

Natalie Awad Schwob recently joined the Cognitive Evolution Group as a postdoctoral scholar, Rosa Munoz joined as a new graduate student in biopsychology, and Isabelle Monroe joined as a new lab coordinator. Welcome!

Congrats to Lauren, Kendall, Palak, Julia, Kathleen, and Joanna!

This week Kendall and Julia presented their senior honors thesis posters in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience, and Palak presented a poster for her research for Psychology 331. Congrats!

Margaret Bryer has recently joined the Cognitive Evolution Group as a postdoctoral scholar, working as part of our collaborative project on chimpanzee leadership with the Kibale Chimpanzee Project. Welcome!

A big congrats to Averill for receiving a Leakey Foundation Research Grant for her project “The evolution of cognitive and behavioral flexibility in chimpanzees.” Stay tuned for her future research!