Toni Ziegler wins 2022 ASP Distinguished Primatologist Award

Dr. Ziegler holds up her award plaque at the ASP meeting.
Toni Ziegler

By Jordana Lenon
Aug. 30, 2022

Congratulations to Toni Ziegler, WNPRC distinguished scientist emerita, on winning the 2022 American Society of Primatologists Distinguished Primatologist Award!

Ziegler accepted the award at the 2022 ASP meeting in Denver Aug. 25-28. The Distinguished Primatologist Award recognizes a primatologist who has had an outstanding career and made significant contributions to the field. It’s the highest honor the ASP can bestow, and Ziegler joins 25 other exceptional primatologists who have won it.

She is the third University of Wisconsin–Madison scientist to receive the honor, along with fellow WNPRC affiliate scientists Chuck Snowdon, professor of psychology emeritus, and Karen Strier, professor of anthropology.

Stacey Tecot, associate professor of biological anthropology at the University of Arizona, director of the Laboratory for the Evolutionary Endocrinology of Primates, and co-director of the Ranomafana Red-Bellied Lemur Project, nominated Ziegler for the award, with letters of support from several other prominent primatologists who have collaborated with, trained or studied under Ziegler: “These scholars include two previous recipients of the Distinguished Primatologist award, directors of laboratories in the U.S., Canada and Germany, and primatologists who study a range of taxa in captivity and the wild, throughout the world—thus reflecting the varied membership of the ASP,” Tecot wrote. “These letters demonstrate the far-reaching and long-standing impact that Dr. Ziegler has had on the field of primatology, through her groundbreaking parenting research and advancements in endocrinology that set a new trajectory for field primatology and captive animal welfare; her successful mentorship of others at every professional and skill level; her impact on the shape of this field globally; and her extensive service to the professional community, especially to the American Society of Primatologists. She has devoted decades of her life to our field and our association, and she deserves to be recognized for her enormous impact.”

Read more about Dr. Ziegler’s career here: https://primate.wisc.edu/news/toni-ziegler-retires/