Zoë Goldsborough named Minerva Fast Track Fellow
The early career researcher will lead a group within the Minerva Fast Track program studying the evolution of primate culture and social behavior
Following a nomination by the directors of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB), Dr. Zoë Goldsborough has been awarded the prestigious Minerva Fast Track Fellowship to set up her own group. Starting in September 2026, Goldsborough will lead the Minerva Fast Track group "Culture and Social Behavior" at the MPI-AB, where she will investigate the complex feedback loops between social relationships and culture in animals.
The Minerva Fast Track Program is a highly competitive initiative of the Max Planck Society. It is designed to provide outstanding young female scientists with long-term career stability and significant resources shortly after completing their doctoral studies. The program specifically targets researchers with the potential to lead major scientific groups, providing four years of funding for their position, a postdoctoral researcher or doctoral student, and a dedicated research budget. By supporting these scientists, the society aims to significantly increase the proportion of women in senior scientific leadership roles.
"The Minerva Fast Track Program offers an unparalleled environment to develop my research into a cohesive, independent portfolio. It provides mentorship and resources to expand my leadership skills, strengthen collaborations, and pioneer innovative methodologies,” says Goldsborough.
Research vision: the feedback loop of culture and social relationships
Goldsborough’s Minerva Fast Track Fellowship will address a fundamental but often overlooked question in evolutionary biology: how do cultural traditions actively shape the social structure of animal groups? Culture is defined as any behavior acquired through social learning. While scientists have long studied how social networks influence the spread of culture, the reverse influence of culture on social dynamics remains largely unexplored in primates.
"My long-term vision is to address this central question in the study of animal culture: how do cultural traditions shape the social structure and dynamics of animal societies?" Goldsborough says.
Her research focuses on the "dynamic interplay" between behaviors and relationships. For example, an individual’s cultural repertoire may dictate who they choose as social partners, while shared traditions might strengthen group cohesion or, conversely, drive fragmentation if those behaviors are not universally shared. To investigate these dynamics, her research will use a combination of non-invasive methods, including camera trapping, direct field observations, and targeted social learning experiments.
From innovation to independence
Goldsborough's career trajectory is marked by a consistent interest in the cultural and inner lives of animals. During her Master’s studies, she led a study documenting the first evidence of consolation toward a bereaved mother in chimpanzees, a discovery that earned Goldsborough the Primates 2020 Social Impact Award and significant international media coverage. She later observed a female chimpanzee rapidly adopting local traditions to "fit in" after immigrating to a new group, which sparked her enduring interest in what socially motivates animals to take on a particular culture.
For her doctoral research at the MPI-AB and the University of Konstanz, Goldsborough focused on a unique population of white-faced capuchin monkeys in Panama’s Coiba National Park. Individuals of this population use stone tools—the only ones in the entire species known to do so. Since 2017, MPI-AB Director Prof. Meg Crofoot and Group Leader Dr. Brendan Barrett have been monitoring this unique tradition with an array of motion-triggered cameras on the island, and Goldsborough made use of this massive dataset from over 160 camera traps.
She documented several scientifically novel phenomena. The individuals who are practicing the unique stone tool tradition on one island are all males, she found. And, in that same group, a troubling "social tradition" has also emerged where young males are abducting and carrying infant monkeys from another species. Her dissertation, "Cracking Capuchins," was awarded the Frans de Waal PhD Dissertation Prize and led to her nomination for the Otto Hahn Medal. This work highlights the scientific novelty of her approach, cementing Goldsborough’s place as one of the few researchers globally pioneering the use of longitudinal camera trap data to study animal culture in the wild.
Conservation and evolutionary impact
One of her most significant PhD findings provided direct evidence that cultural traditions can structure wild societies: she discovered that tool-using capuchin groups were less cohesive than their non-tool-using neighbors, as tool use often occurred on monopolizable resources that potentially changed the group's social spacing. This paved the way for her new direction to uncover the origins of the social-cultural interplay that has defined the primage lineage, including our own.
Through the Minerva Fast Track Fellowship, Goldsborough aims to bridge the gap between individual-level behaviors and group-level social structures. By comparing multiple primate species across wild and captive contexts, her research will develop generalizable methods to study how culture and social behavior have co-evolved, ultimately providing a clearer window into the origins of complex human societies.
The relevance of Goldsborough’s research extends beyond theoretical biology into conservation. As animal populations face rapid, human-driven environmental changes, culture can act as a buffer, allowing species to rapidly acquire new survival behaviors within a single lifetime.
"Cultural diversity is increasingly recognized as a form of biodiversity worth conserving," Goldsborough notes. “Integrating culture’s effects on social relationships is key to supporting the resilience of wild populations.”
In addition to her research, Goldsborough is recognized for her commitment to open science and inclusive leadership. She has served as a PhD and postdoc representative at the MPI-AB and was a founding member of the institute's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Working Group. Her dedication to transparency is reflected in her practice of archiving all research code and data for open access. "I believe science should be collaborative, inclusive, and interdisciplinary," she says.
"I am committed to carrying forward this combination of independence, ethical responsibility, and openness to establish a distinctive research environment on animal culture and social networks, realizing the full potential of the Minerva Fast Track Fellowship".
