Jeanne Altmann

Jeanne Altmann, born March 18, 1940, in New York City, is a Eugene Higgins Professor Emeritus of animal behavior and physiology at Princeton University. She is known for her research on the social behaviour of baboons, contributions to contemporary primate behavioural ecology, and for "revolutionizing" field-sampling methodology. She was also one of the first researchers to study primate mothers and the effects of genes on parenting and mating. She is a founder and director emerita of the Amboseli Baboon Research Project, a former Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society.

Early life and education Jeanne Altmann started her undergraduate degree at UCLA as a mathematics major. During her second year, she transferred to MIT after marrying Stuart Altmann, who was a graduate student at Harvard. which counts its official start in 1971, following a preliminary field study in 1963–4. According to historian Georgia M. Montgomery, Altmann's directorship of the Baboon Project and her extensive publication record have "led to her status as a leader in animal behavior studies."

This was not the extent of Altmann's influence. In a 1974 article for Behaviour, "Observational Study of Behavior: Sampling Methods," Altmann reviewed the current standardized data collection methods. Ad lib sampling, for example, was perhaps the most common method; it referred to a loose process where the field researcher simply makes notes of what s/he sees. This type of "unconscious" decision-making, however, could lead to biased results. (Early baboon researchers noticed only a select group of the more active or aggressive animals and drew conclusions about a whole group based on that minority. )

Before Altmann's 1974 survey, most field researchers did not pay much attention to how the method used to observe animals impacted the kinds of data collected. This made it difficult to compare animal behavior in different studies and draw reliable conclusions. But Altmann's paper initiated a revolution in field studies, helping protect against individual bias and making comparative studies easier. 1989 - Fellow, Animal Behavior Society 1996 - Exemplar Award, Animal Behavior Society 1996 - Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2003 - Fellow, National Academy of Sciences 2012 - Distinguished Animal Behaviorist Award, Animal Behavior Society 2013 - Sewall Wright Award 2014 - Lifetime Achievement Award, International Primatological Society 2020 - Member, American Philosophical Society 2022 - BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award