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Professor Zanna Clay is a leading comparative and developmental psychologist at Durham University, specializing in primate behavior and human evolutionary origins. She holds a joint appointment as an Associate Fellow in the Institute of Advanced Study. Her work bridges primatology, developmental psychology, and conservation, focusing on empathy, communication, and social learning in great apes and humans.
Clay completed her doctoral work at the University of St Andrews, followed by postdoctoral research at Emory University and the University of Neuchatel. She has extensive field experience studying bonobos in the wild and captivity, including roles at the Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary. Her research explores the evolutionary roots of human social cognition through comparative studies of bonobos, chimpanzees, and human infants.
Key research interests include empathy development, language evolution, primate vocal communication, and the role of gesture in early human communication. She leads projects on cross-cultural empathy in infants (UK and Uganda) and has pioneered studies on emotion contagion using thermal imaging. Her work also addresses conservation challenges for bonobos through behavioral insights.
Clay supervises PhD students investigating primate behavior, socio-emotional development, and conservation. She collaborates globally, including with the MPI-EVA in Congo and Birmingham University. Notable publications include studies on bonobo empathy, primate vocal flexibility, and the evolutionary origins of imitation.
