 Des Moines, Iowa – March 30, 2006 – Dr.
Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a lead scientist with Great Ape Trust of Iowa, has been
appointed as an affiliate professor in the Department of Anthropology at Iowa
State University. The three year appointment is effective April 1.
“The administration, faculty and students at Iowa State University engender
an authentic spirit of collaboration and openness,” says Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh. “This
growing and productive relationship between ISU and Great Ape Trust significantly
enhance my optimism that a unique and internationally-recognized scientific consortium
can emerge in Iowa."
 In addition to her position as lead scientist, Savage-Rumbaugh directs the bonobo scientific research program at Great Ape Trust, a world-class organization dedicated to understanding the origins and future of culture, language, tools and intelligence in great apes. In spring of 2005, Savage-Rumbaugh transferred her research program and a family of eight bonobos from the Language Research Center at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
At the LRC, Savage-Rumbaugh helped pioneer the use of a number of new technologies for working with primates. These include a keyboard which provides for speech synthesis, allowing the animals to communicate using spoken English, and a "primate friendly" computer-based joystick terminal that permits the automated presentation of many different computerized tasks. Information developed at the center regarding the abilities of non-human primates to acquire symbols, comprehend spoken words, decode syntactical structures, learn concepts of number and quantity, and perform complex perceptual-motor tasks has helped changed the way humans view other members of the primate order.
 Savage-Rumbaugh's work with a male bonobo named Kanzi was detailed in Language Comprehension in Ape and Child published in Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (1993). It was selected by the "Millennium Project" as one of the top 100 most influential works in cognitive science in the 20th century by the University of Minnesota Center for Cognitive Sciences in 1991. Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh's work is also featured in Apes, Language and the Human Mind (Oxford Press, 1996) and Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind (John Wiley & Sons, 1995).
When completed, Great Ape Trust will be the largest great ape facility in North America and one of the first worldwide to include all four types of great ape – bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans – for noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of their cognitive and communicative capabilities.
Great Ape Trust is dedicated to providing sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes, studying the intelligence of great apes, advancing conservation of great apes and providing unique educational experiences about great apes. Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization and is certified by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA). To learn more about Great Ape Trust of Iowa, go to www.GreatApeTrust.org.
Great Ape Trust of Iowa is located five
miles southeast of downtown Des Moines on 230 acres of lowlands, riverine forest
and lakes. When completed, Great Ape Trust will be the largest great ape facility
in North America and one of the first worldwide to include all four types of
great ape – bonobos, chimpanzees,
gorillas and orangutans – for noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of
their cognitive and communicative capabilities.
Great Ape Trust is dedicated to
providing sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes, studying the intelligence
of great apes, advancing conservation of great apes and providing unique educational
experiences about great apes. Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit
organization and is certified by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA).
To learn more about Great Ape Trust of Iowa, go to www.GreatApeTrust.org. |
