Sophomore biology major Lauren Kippes is completing her first semester at UTC. Photo by Angela Foster.
Call it a case of being in the right place at the right time.
Lauren Kippes, a biology major nearing the end of her sophomore year, transferred to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in January after attending Chattanooga State Community College.
During one of her earliest days at UTC, Kippes’ Biology 1130 professor, Loren Hayes, asked the students what they were interested in pursuing.
“I mentioned that I was interested in primates,” Kippes related, “and he said, ‘I have a friend at Yale (University) doing a research program this summer. I can put you guys in contact.’”
Hayes is one of the creators of International Remote Seminar on Frontiers in Social Evolution, an online series exploring animal societies. One of his series co-creators and colleagues is Yale Professor of Anthropology Eduardo Fernandez-Duque.
In 1996, Fernandez-Duque founded the Owl Monkey Project, a multi-disciplinary study site in Argentina that explores the evolution of monogamy and paternal care in owl monkeys—a pair-bonded primate.
Last fall, the project received funding from the National Science Foundation to launch “Behavioral Ecology, Demography, and Conservation of Primates in the Humid Chaco of Argentina,” a summer program aimed at undergraduate students to perform fully-funded field research.
For Kippes, relaying that interest in primates turned into a “right place at the right time” moment.
Hayes connected Kippes to Fernandez-Duque, who suggested she interview for the program. Kippes then applied for and landed a coveted spot on the undergraduate research team.
“When I found out I was accepted into this research program, I was so excited that I cried,” said Kippes, a native of Nashville. “I thought I was going to be taking some summer courses and working this summer.
“Getting to do research with a Yale professor is really exciting, and I get paid for it—which is insane. Normally, you don’t get paid to do stuff like that.”
Kippes and six other undergrads will spend June and July near Formosa, Argentina, collecting data on behavior, ecology and conservation through the field study of the owl monkeys. They will then meet online every couple of weeks during the fall to analyze the data.
“We will get to decide what we want to do as a group,” she said, “and whether we want to look at predator/prey interactions between monkeys and their predators, or intraspecific competition like mating, or interspecific competition with monkeys and other organisms in the environment.”
Once the group chooses its project, the students will learn how to use telemetry—a remote collection of measurements—and the taking of behavioral data.
“In the fall, we’ll look at how to put together that data,” she said. “I think we’re presenting it at a symposium at the end of the fall semester.”
During the summer program, the undergraduates will work with and learn from graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, collaborators from the nearby Universidad Nacional de Formosa and assistants from the U.S., Argentina and other countries.
“One of the PI’s (Principal Investigator) for the program has been working with the Owl Monkey Project since 2011. She went there as a student and now she’s one of the program coordinators,” Kippes said. “I think it’s really cool to see that she started there as a student and now she’s continuing her career there.
“This opportunity will give me a good sense of what a career like this would be like.”
Kippes has traveled internationally before and even spent time researching baboons near the South African town of Phalaborwa. She termed that experience “very unofficial” compared to what she will be doing this summer.
“Getting this opportunity is important because I think this will hopefully propel me a lot further in my career—and a lot faster than other students that don’t get this opportunity,” she said.
Kippes said she recently watched Fernandez-Duque’s owl monkey presentation in the online seminar series to help prepare her for the upcoming summer research experience.
She also revealed that Fernandez-Duque told the student researchers that their summer would consist of more than just field study.
“He says we’re going to be learning Spanish and he expects us to be pretty fluent in Spanish at the end of the summer,” she said. “It’s not just about science and research; he wants it to be a cultural experience.
“So I’m kind of getting a two-for-one deal here.”
