MEDIA ALERT Zoo Conference asks, “What’s That Chimpanzee Thinking?” International Mind of the Chimpanzee Conference Explores Ape Insight

	NEWS RELEASE Lincoln Park Zoo Plays Host to World's Leading Primatologists in First Scientific Meeting Dedicated to Study of Cognitive Abilities in Chimpanzees
	NEWS RELEASE World’s Leading Primatologists Gather at Lincoln Park Zoo in First Scientific Meeting Dedicated to Study of Cognitive Abilities in Chimpanzees Conference Provides Rare Opportunity for Researchers to Share Scientific Knowledge of How Chimpanzees Process Information

B-ROLL VIDEO
Broadcast quality B-roll video is available for download on a secure server. To request B-roll video, please contact Jack Wlezien at 312-558-1770 ext. 141 or JWlezien@pcipr.com.

BIOGRAPHIES
Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf, Ph.D.
Director of Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes
Elizabeth Lonsdorf graduated from Duke University in 1996 and received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 2003. As an undergraduate, Lonsdorf did research at the Duke University Primate Center on foraging skills of the highly endangered aye-aye. An interest in marine mammals led to research assistantships at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii and at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center. Her graduate work at Minnesota, under the auspices of the Jane Goodall Institute’s Center for Primate Studies, centered on young chimpanzee development and focused on the acquisition of foraging skills. As part of her research, Lonsdorf spent several months per year studying wild chimpanzees at Gombe National Park in Tanzania.

As the director of Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lonsdorf coordinates the zoo’s support of and participation in wild animal conservation initiatives. She continues to study tool-use in chimpanzees in the wild and at the Regenstein Center for African Apes as part of the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes. She is also conducting field research on ecosystem health issues in the Gombe chimpanzees. Lonsdorf is the in-situ adviser to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Chimpanzee Species Survival Plan and a member of AZA’s Field Conservation Committee. She serves on the Section on Great Apes of the IUCN’s Primate Specialist Group and is a member of the Committee of Evolutionary Biology faculty of the University of Chicago.

Steve Ross, M.A.
Supervisor of Behavioral and Cognitive Research, Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes
Steve Ross received his B.S. in zoology from the University of Guelph in his native Canada in 1993 and completed a master's from the University of Chicago in 2003. He has researched and published on a number of topics across of variety of taxa, including domestic pigs, free-ranging monkeys, wild dogs, lemurs, polar bears and small-clawed otters.

Ross joined Lincoln Park Zoo in 2000 as a research specialist and coordinated the research study evaluating the former Lester E. Fisher Great Ape House in preparation for the building of the new ape facility. Results from this project played a major role in the design and development of the Regenstein Center for African Apes. Ross now coordinates the behavioral and cognitive programs of the zoo’s Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes and conducts research in cognitive psychology and applied animal behavior. He is also chair of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Chimpanzee Species Survival Plan (SSP), which helps manage the population of 300 chimpanzees living in accredited zoos across North America.

Tetsuro Matsazawa
Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University
Dr. Tetsuro Matsuzawa is well known for his studies of chimpanzee intelligence both in the laboratory and in the wild. The laboratory work, known as the "Ai-project," has focused on the language-like skills and concept of numbers established in a female chimpanzee named Ai. The project started in 1978 and is one of the longest laboratory studies of chimpanzee intelligence. Matsuzawa has also been studying the tool use in wild chimpanzees at Bossou, Guinea, West Africa since 1986 and is involved in efforts to conserve wild chimpanzees though the "Green Corridor Project," a successful reforestation program. He has received the Prince Chichibu Memorial Science Award in 1991, Jane Goodall Award in 2001 and The Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2004.