Emily Sue Savage-Rumbaugh[1][2] (born August 16, 1946) is a psychologist and primatologist most known for her work with two bonobos, Kanzi and Panbanisha, investigating their linguistic and cognitive abilities using lexigrams and computer-based keyboards.

[1] She has collaborated alongside her ex-husband,[4] renowned comparative psychologist Duane M. Rumbaugh, who was a pioneer in the study of ape language.

[4] She relocated to New Jersey – becoming embroiled in several legal battles with the Ape Cognition and Conservation Initiative[8][5] – and again to her home state of Missouri.

At the Georgia State University's Language Research Center, Savage-Rumbaugh helped pioneer the use of a number of new technologies for working with primates.

These include a keyboard which provides for speech synthesis, allowing the animals to communicate using spoken English, and a "primate friendly" computer-based joystick terminal that permits the automated presentation of many different computerized tasks.

Her view of language – that it is not confined to humans and is learnable by other ape species – is generally criticized and not accepted by researchers from linguistics, psychology and other sciences of the brain and mind.