Goodall Institute director to highlight SMU biology research symposium April 4

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary’s University Biology Department and Biology Club will host the 35th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in Biology on Friday, April 4, in the Adducci Science Center.

Students from Saint Mary’s and other colleges and universities in the tri-state region will present the results of their undergraduate research projects. Registration is free and begins at 8 a.m. Presentations begin at 8:30 a.m. and continue until the 11:45 a.m. lunch break; presentations will then continue from 2:15 to 4 p.m.

This year’s featured speaker is Dr. Anne Pusey, director of the Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies at the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Pusey will present "Friends or foes? Social relationships among female chimpanzees" from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Page Theatre, located in the SMU Performance Center.

Dr. Pusey studied juvenile and adolescent development in the Gombe chimpanzees in the 1970s, then spent more than 10 years studying the social behavior of lions in the Serengeti. At the Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies, which houses data on chimpanzees and baboons, Dr. Pusey’s research group is computerizing and analyzing the data from Jane Goodall's 46-year study of the Gombe chimpanzees.

She is studying the ecological determinants of social systems, dispersal patterns, the factors that cause animals to live in different kinds of groups, and the benefits animals derive from the particular relationships they form.

The public is invited to attend Dr. Pusey’s lecture, as well as the student presentations, free of charge.