Sue Savage-Rumbaugh

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh
Savage-Rumbaugh at the 2011 Time 100 gala
Born	(1946-08-16) August 16, 1946 (age 70)
Occupation	scientist emeritus at Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary
Website	http://iowaprimatelearning.org/

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh (born August 16, 1946) is a psychologist and primatologist most known for her work with two bonobos, Kanzi and Panbanisha, investigating their linguistic and cognitive abilities using lexigrams and computer-based keyboards. Originally based at Georgia State University's Language Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia, she worked at the Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary in Des Moines, Iowa from 2006 until her departure in November 2013. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of Bonobo Hope.

Savage-Rumbaugh received an MS degree at the University of Oklahoma, and completed her doctorate there in 1975. She has been awarded honorary Ph.D.s by the University of Chicago in 1997 and Missouri State University in 2008.

The first and only scientist to conduct language research with bonobos, Savage-Rumbaugh joined Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary in 2005 following a 23-year association with Georgia State University's Language Research Center (LRC). In 2011, she was recognized as one of TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World.

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 simple syntactical structures, learn concepts of number and quantity, and perform complex perceptual-motor tasks has helped change the way humans view other members of the primate order.