Simone Susanne Pika (née Klein) is a German ethologist and primatologist investigating the evolution and development of language, cognition and plasticity by focusing on distinct model systems such as corvids, great apes, monkeys and dolphins.
[1] In 1992, Pika did her first ethological internship with Wolfgang Wickler at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioural Physiology in Seewiesen, Germany.
Her specialization in ethology at the Department of Behavioural Biology, University of Münster and contact with Norbert Sachser led to a diploma thesis on the social behavior of three great ape species living in the Zürich Zoologischer Garten in collaboration with August A. Anzenberger and Bob Martin from the University of Zürich.
From 2000 to 2003, Pika did her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, supervised by Michael Tomasello and Norbert Sachser.
[4] Pika's research centers on the evolution and development of language, cognition and plasticity by focusing on model groups that are characterized by complex social relationships and networks.