Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

Elizabeth Zimmerman's work in Australia this summer included data on dolphin calf-sibling interactions. (Courtesy Elizabeth Zimmerman)

By Katherine Morrissey

After spending 20 years researching and observing the wild bottle-nosed dolphins of Shark Bay, Dr. Janet Mann has compiled a lot of data. Students like Elizabeth Zimmerman, currently pursuing an honors Psychology degree and a Theology minor, are able to use this data as they hone their own individual research skills.

“I’m a Psychology major, but I have become increasingly interested in the connection between the fields of biology and psychology,” explains Zimmerman. “As this correspondence is at the root of Dr. Mann’s work, I sought to further my academic pursuit through work in Dr. Mann’s lab.”

These connecting fields form the center of Zimmerman’s current project, which will eventually become her senior thesis.

“For the past 12 months, I have been working on various aspects of Dr. Mann’s long-term behavioral research initiative, the Dolphin Mother-Infant Behavioral Ecology Project,” says Zimmerman. “My particular interest in the project concerns the social behavior of the wild dolphins, specifically the nature of calf-sibling interactions.”

In recognition of her achievements, Zimmerman was invited to travel with Dr. Mann and a few other students to Australia this past summer, joining the Shark Bay Research Project.

“During my 13 weeks in Australia, I gathered data on the nature of dolphin calf-sibling interactions,” says Zimmerman. “In preparation for this, I spent the last two semesters working alongside Dr. Mann and several graduate students in the lab. I’ve also been examining and reviewing more than 18 years of focal data on calf-sibling interactions, specifically focusing on the data available on 105 calves born to nearly 70 different mothers.”

Now that her fieldwork in Australia has been completed, Zimmerman is busy organizing all the data she’s collected. She is also constructing a clean data file on social behavior involving the calf, the mother, and other individuals in the kin-group.

She finds the research process both challenging and rewarding.

“Research allows us to find answers to our deepest and most puzzling questions,” says Zimmerman, “answers which are often both unexpected and extremely interesting. This is what I love about it.”

When she’s not working in the lab, Zimmerman serves as the President of the Psi Chi National Honors Society in Psychology. She was awarded their Summer Research Grant as well as the GUROP Summer Fellow Grant. Zimmerman has been on the Dean’s list, received Second Honors, and served as a teaching assistant in biology. She is currently enrolled in the Psychology Honors Program. Zimmerman hopes to pursue research opportunities for at least a year or two after she graduates, and then she plans to enter medical school.

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