Successful IPS conference in Chicago

The IPS/ASP conference in Chicago this year was probably one of the largest international gatherings of primatologists. There were around 1000 primatologists from around the world and LEAP was represented by talks from Serge Wich, Matthew Nowak, Kelly van Leeuwen, Chris Marsh, Emma Hankinson, and myself. Aralisa Shedden had a poster which I presented at the conference because she could unfortunately not attend in person. Cici Alexander and Ross Hill were represented by the LEAP poster which attracted a lot of attention. Most interesting was the recurring comment on how rarely landscape ecology features currently in primatological research.

We have all made lots of new contacts and re-established contacts with old friends.

Chicago is a fantastic city with great public transport, which I needed a lot because my hotel was a bit farther away than planned. The conference was held at the Navy pier on the shores of Lake Michigan. With the weather being fantastic, my son and partner spend most of the conference days at the little beach near the pier and they loved the Science and Technology Museum on one rainy day. We had a short holiday beforehand and the highlight was probably barely escaping tornadoes that had popped up just after we left the affected area. We heard the metallic announcement on the radio as we were heading away from Holland (where the tornadoes were going).

The conference was of course again an inspiration for new ideas and research avenues, with amazing plenaries (Jane Goodall starting the conference off (see picture) and many excellent talks. I had the pleasure to chair my own session in which I presented work by myself, Katherine Williams and Helen Slater and in which Emma and Chris spoke about their projects. Chris was shortlisted for the student talk prize. We learned about several projects that had similar interests to our own. We had a dinner together as a team (although Kelly sadly missed it) but I'm afraid no pictures were taken so all I've got to show you is the poster and a picture of Emma, Kelly and myself at the poster presentation.

Overall, I think it is fair to say we all enjoyed our time in Chicago and learned a lot.

See also pictures by Emma and Kelly on our facebook page.

Full Abstracts and programme: https://www.asp.org/IPS/meetings/conferenceschedule.cfm.