Julia Fischer is a biologist who studies the cognition, communication, and social behaviour of nonhuman primates. With her team, she established the field site Simenti in Senegal where she studies Guinea baboons in the wild, to contribute to a better understanding of the social evolution of baboons. She currently leads the Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition and the German Research Foundation (DFG) research training group “Understanding Social Relationships”, and has attracted >10 M € in research funds. She has served on several panels and committees, including the Senate of the German Research Foundation, and as a member and chair of a European Research Council (ERC) selection panel (20-2014). Fischer is vice president of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science and a member of the Biotopia (Bavaria’s Natural History Museum) Brain Trust. In 2013, she received the Grüter-Prize for Science Communication. Her book “Monkeytalk” (Chicago University Press, 2017) presents her research to a broader audience.