When Matthew Novak set foot on Tinjil Island in Indonesia this summer, it was a homecoming of sorts. Twenty years ago, Novak (BS, PhD, Psychology, 1993, 2002) participated in a month-long field study program on the remote island as a UW graduate student. He returned this year as a professor, along with four of his Central Oregon Community College students.
“I suppose Matt’s students are my grandstudents,” jokes Randy Kyes, research professor in the UW Department of Psychology, core scientist in the UW Primate Center, and director of the UW Center for Global Field Study. Kyes led the field study program when Novak was a graduate student and continues to lead it today. The program focuses on conservation biology and global health, and is open to anyone interested in field research.
Tinjil Island is home to more than 1,500 long-tailed macaque monkeys, as well as monitor lizards and many other tropical fauna and flora. Kyes began leading a summer field training program there for Indonesian students in 1991, through a collaboration between the UW Primate Center and Bogor Agricultural University’s Primate Center.
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