| 1 | Name: | Dr. Frans B. M. de Waal | |
| Institution: | Yerkes Primate Research Center; Emory University | ||
| Year Elected: | 2005 | ||
| Class: | 3. Social Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 305 | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1948 | ||
At a time when animal behavior was classified as either instinctive or acquired through trial-and-error learning, Frans de Waal produced convincing evidence that chimpanzees jockey for status with cunning and strategic foresight. His observations of "chimpanzee politics" were documented with such care for detail, both qualitative and quantitative, that they greatly stimulated the cognitive study and interpretation of animal behavior. At the same time, Dr. de Waal reported how chimpanzees resolve conflicts, assist one another reciprocally and console distressed individuals. His research on peacemaking, tit-for-tat, and empathy has inspired a new approach to the study of animal behavior. To date, it has produced over 125 scientific publications on conflict resolution in animals and children and is in the process of replacing the traditional evolutionary view of "everyone for itself" with a postulate of shared interests among social animals and a consequent need for compromise and reconciliation. In his work, Dr. de Waal has skillfully translated novel ideas into testable hypotheses, leading to elegant studies in peer-reviewed journals, including Science and Nature. He has significantly raised methodological standards for the study of animal social behavior and is internationally recognized for his depiction of primates as complex social beings as well as his empirically supported opposition to the view that the natural world is necessarily ruled by selfishness. Dr. de Waal has directed the Living Links, Yerkes Primate Research Center since 1997 and has been Research Professor of Psychobiology at Emory University since 1991 and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Primate Behavior since 1996. Winner of the 1989 Los Angeles Times Book Award, he is the author of works such as Peacemaking Among Primates (1989); Good Natured (1996); Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape (1997); Chimpanzee Politics (1998); The Ape and the Sushi Master (2001); The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society (2009); The Bonobo and the Atheist (2013); Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (2016); and Mama's Last Hug: Animal and Human Emotions (2019). | |||