Zsófia Virányi

I am a biologist grown up with the books of  Konrad Lorenz, Joy Adamson and Vilmos Csanyi, and graduated at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
I always wanted to understand the language of animals and ended up as a scientist on the field of animal cognition. Most of my ethological research has focused on dogs, accompanied with experiences on primates like great apes, capuchin and squirrel monkeys, common marmosets and children of course.
My way of turning science into practical application is dog therapy and service dog training. A postdoctoral fellowship at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Altenberg brought me into Austria. Here the partnership with Friederike Range and Kurt Kotrschal was formed.
During my PhD, I spent three years with comparing the behavior of wolves and dogs, hand-raised in the same way, not only through experiments but also sharing my life with them. This convinced me that life-long experiences are needed to learn more about them.