Evolution of Primate Social Cognition (Interdisciplinary Evolution Research)

Laura Desirèe Di Paolo, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Lichtenberg-Kolleg in the Institute for Advanced Study at the Georg-August University of Göttingen and member of the Primate Cognition Research Group at the Leibniz Science Campus in Göttingen. She is a philosopher of cognitive and life sciences, with a particular interest in primatology, and in comparative and developmental psychology. Her work focuses on social cognition and social learning strategies in human and nonhuman primates, and on their impact on the evolution of human-like cultural cognition.

Francesca De Petrillo is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. Her research examines the evolutionary origins of human cognition by employing a multidisciplinary approach integrating both comparative and developmental research. In doing so, she aims to elucidate which aspects of cognition are unique to humans, and how species’ differences in life history, ecology, and social structure account for differences in their cognitive skills. She received a PhD in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology from Sapienza University of Rome and conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard University and the University of Michigan.