Frans deWaal

Frans B.M. de Waal is the C.H. Chandler Professor of Primate Behavior in Emory University’s psychology department and is director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Center. He is the author of numerous books including Chimpanzee Politics (2000) and Our Inner Ape (2005).

An ethologist and zoologist, de Waal is best known for his work on the social intelligence of primates, especially as it relates to conflict resolution, cooperation, inequity aversion and food-sharing. In 1993, he was elected to the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and was elected as a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) in 2004. His research into the innate capacity for empathy among primates has led de Waal to the conclusion that non-human great apes and humans are simply different types of apes, and that there is little difference between these species.

At the 2007 ASC conference, de Waal delivered both a response to Martha Nussbaum's address as well as an address the following morning.