FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 29, 2005

CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119, lisa.lacher@drake.edu

RENOWNED SCIENTIST TO DISCUSS GREAT APES IN SPEECH AT DRAKE

Duane M. Rumbaugh, liaison for academic and community affairs, of Great Ape Trust of Iowa, will give a presentation on “Great Apes: Their Learning and Intelligence” at Drake University on Friday, Dec. 2. The event, which is free and open to the public as part of the Drake Science Colloquium Series, will start at noon in Bulldog Theater in Olmsted Center, 29th Street and University Avenue.

Rumbaugh will describe the mission of the trust and its commitment to humane research, education and sanctuary to the end that the great apes might survive threatened extinction in their home ranges. Also, he will talk about the significance of the great apes in efforts to understand ourselves better and to understand learning and behavior from a new perspective of his own formulation.

Rumbaugh is in his 50th year of research and study of the great apes from a comparative perspective. Prior to joining Great Ape Trust, Rumbaugh was Regents professor in the Departments of Psychology and Biology at Georgia State University in Atlanta. In 1981 he co-founded GSU’s Language Research Center and served as its director for 20 years. He initiated the Lana Chimpanzee Language Project in 1971 and led the development of a computer-monitored keyboard for that and other projects that included children and young adults whose language development was compromised by severe learning disabilities. From 1969-71, Rumbaugh was the associate director and chief of behavior at the Yerkes Regional Primate Center of Emory University in Atlanta.

Rumbaugh recently was awarded the D. O. Hebb Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award by the Executive Committee of Division 6 of the American Psychological Association. The award honors a psychologist who has made distinguished theoretical or empirical contributions to basic research in neuroscience and/or comparative psychology.

A native of Maynard, Iowa, Rumbaugh received his master’s degree from Kent State University and his Ph.D. in general-experimental psychology from the University of Colorado. He is the author and co-author of well over 200 publications on animal intelligence and language learning, including “Intelligence of Apes and Other Rational Beings” with David A. Washburn (Yale University Press, 2003).

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