Speaker Series
Living With Chimpanzees
Date+Time
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The MƒA Thursday Think Speaker Series brings accomplished speakers who dive into cutting-edge topics in STEM education to MƒA. These talks, held once a month throughout the school year, invite MƒA teachers and the general public to learn and engage with these thought leaders and professionals in mathematics, science, and education.
In this Thursday Think talk, Dr. Zarin Machanda will discuss what it’s like to be a field primatologist studying chimpanzees in Uganda. She will highlight the basics of chimpanzee behavior and how researchers collect data on a species so closely related to our own. In particular, Dr. Machanda will discuss some of her recent research findings on how and why chimpanzees form friendships, how these change as individuals get older, and what this might tell us about our own aging process.
Dr. Zarin Machanda is the Usen Family Career Development Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Tufts University and one of the Directors of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project which has been studying the Kanyawara community of chimpanzees in Uganda since 1987. Zarin’s research is focused on understanding how and why chimpanzees form long-term bonds at all stages of their lives. She is also involved in several other chimpanzee projects studying hunting, cooperation, and communication.