Collaborators
Dr. Esther Hermann
Post-Doctoral Associate at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Esther played a pivotal role in establishing our relationship with and conducting the first research at the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Congo-Brazzaville.
Dr. Alicia Melis
Assistant Professor in the Behavioural Science Group at Warwick Business School
Alicia played a pivotal role in establishing our relationship with and conducting the first research at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda.
Dr. Victoria Wobber
The aim of her research while at Duke was to investigate the origins of human social behavior and cognition, including the underlying physiological mechanisms.
PhD Students
Dr. Kara Walker
Class of 2016 – Postdoctoral Associate, Duke University
Kara's research focuses on the evolution of social behavior & cognition, primarily in apes. Her main interest is in understanding the ontogeny of social relationships, particularly during female-transfer in Pan species where adolescents must leave their natal group and integrate quickly into a neighboring community before they can begin reproduction.
Dr. Chris Krupenye
Class of 2016 – Postdoctoral Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Chris researches developmental and comparative psychology with a special interest in the theory of mind in great apes and other primates.
Dr. Jingzhi "Hippo" Tan
Class of 2013 – Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California- San Diego
Jingzhi studies the psychological mechanisms of cooperation and trust in humans, nonhuman primates, and dogs.
Dr. Evan MacLean
Class of 2012 – Assistant Professor at University of Arizona
Evan was also a former postdoctoral fellow and co-director of the Duke Canine Cognition Center. He continues his work investigating what makes the human mind unique, and broader evolutionary questions regarding the proximate mechanisms and functional significance of cognition.
Dr. Alexandra Rosati
Class of 2012 – Assistant Professor at University of Michigan
Alex's research focuses on how ecology shapes behavioral strategies and psychological abilities in primates, including lemurs, chimpanzees and bonobos.
Lab Managers
Ben Allen
Class of '16, Lab Manager '16-'17
Law student at Vermont Law School. Ben worked with different adult dog populations as an undergraduate with the lab. For his thesis, titled "Comparison of temperament and social cognition in juvenile dogs and wolves", Ben studied the differences between dog and wolf puppies. After graduating, Ben worked as the lab coordinator in the Hare Lab for one year before moving to D.C. to work with Population Connection and then attending law school.
Kerri Rodriguez
Class of '13, Lab Manager '13-'15
Graduate Student at Purdue University. Kerri was one of the first and foremost experimentalists at the DCCC, developing and implementing our cognitive testing battery on dogs and captive wolves alike. Her research now focuses on the psychosocial effects of service dogs for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
Kate Almon
Lab Manager '14-'15
Guide Dogs for the Blind. Kate is now a Guide Dog Mobility Instructor, applying her experiences and knowledge of dog cognition to help train wonderful service dogs.
Sophia Laderman
Lab Manager '13-'14
Sophie applied her background in psychology and marine science to cognition research with dogs. She worked with pet, military, and service dogs alike.
Kara Leimberger
Class of '11, Lab Manager '12-'13 – Graduate Student at University of Texas at Austin with Dr. Rebecca Lewis
Her research interests broadly include cooperation, group coordination, and social cognition. Given that most primates face uncertain futures, she is also very involved with conservation and science outreach.
Rachna Reddy
Class of '12, Lab Manager '12-'13 – Graduate Student at University of Michigan Gradu with Dr. John Mitani
Rachna's research focuses on cognition and social relationships in primates, and she completed a senior thesis called, "Do red ruffed lemurs yawn contagiously?"
Judy Songrady
Lab Manager '12-'13 – Veterinary Student at Szent István University
In addition to helping with dog projects, Judy was interested in bonobos and great ape conservation.
Thesis Students
Sruti Pisharody
Class of '15 – Medical Student at the Duke University
Sruti's research interests were in conservation psychology and how to incentivize people to contribute to environmental causes. After graduation, she taught in Malaysia as part of the Fulbright Program, and she is now a medical student at Duke.
Jeremy Clift
Class of '15
As a member of the Hare lab, Jeremy had the opportunity to study the cognition of dogs, lemurs, and chimpanzees. For his thesis, Jeremy investigated how chimpanzees process novel dominance relationships. He now works as a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
Leah Kaiser
Class of '14
Leah's research interests were with lemur social cognition and chimp transitive inference. Her senior thesis project was called, "The evolution of transitive inference: Chimpanzees' performance with social and nonsocial stimuli." She helped immensely with educational outreach projects for children. After graduating, Leah stayed with the Hare Group as a research assistant for the summer to study wolf puppy cognition.
Monica Chelius
Class of '14
Monica completed her senior thesis project on a project called, "The ingroup-outgroup bias of scratch and yawn contagion in humans." She was generally interested in studying human behaviors to help understand human evolutionary origins.
Joel Bray
Class of '13 – Graduate Student at the Arizona State University with Dr. Ian Gilby
Joel completed his senior thesis on social cognition in lemurs. His project was called, "Are lemurs sensitive to the visual and auditory perception of others?" Taking a comparative approach, he hopes to better understand the selective pressures influencing primate cognitive evolution.
Ben Finkel
Class of '13 – Graduate Student at University of Michigan with Dr. Andy Marshall
Ben conducted an honors thesis that combined his interest in education outreach and conservation research called, "How do portrayals of chimpanzees as either aggressive of affiliative can affect our conservation perception?" His project examined how portrayals of chimpanzees as either aggressive of affiliative can affect our conservation perception.
Sandeep Prasanna
Class of '11 – UCLA School of Law
Sandeep completed his senior thesis on a project entitled "Let's talk: why do we cooperate?". His study investigated the role of communication in human cooperation asking questions such as: How does communication affect our willingness to cooperate? How does communication compare to altruistic punishment in affecting levels of cooperation, and which do people prefer to engage in?
Aaron Sandel
Class of '10 – Assistant Professor at University of Texas, Austin
Aaron completed his honors thesis on lemur social cognition with the project titled, "Does ring-tailed lemur social cognition converge with that of haplorhine primates?" After graduating, Aaron worked with Dr. Anne Pusey for one year as a research associate.