Renowned primate researcher Stephen Suomi discusses his work on biobehavioral development and some of the factors that contribute to the stability of such social traits as fearfulness and aggressiveness in a Lawrence University Science Hall Colloquium.
Suomi, chief of the Laboratory of Comparative Ethology at the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., presents “How Gene-Environment Interactions Can Shape Individual Difference in Emotional Regulation in Rhesus Monkeys” Thursday, Oct. 6 at 4:30 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102. The talk is free and open to the public.
Suomi’s extensive research has uncovered the complex and often surprising ways genes and the environment interact and suggests nurturing mothers may alter gene expression in baby rhesus monkeys. In his presentation, he will address the degree to which his findings on monkeys studied in captivity also apply to monkeys living in the wild as well as to humans living in different cultures.
One of the preeminent scholars in his field, Suomi has delivered more than 300 invited talks, symposium presentations and convention papers at nearly 100 colleges and universities, including UC-Berkeley, Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale. He also has written or co-written more than 300 published articles in scientific journals and chapters in edited volumes.
Suomi joined the NIH’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development division in 1983 after beginning his professional career as a faculty member in the psychology department at the University of Wisconsin. In addition to his work at the NIH, he also holds appointments as a research professor at the University of Virginia, the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins University.
