Debby (Redish) Fripp

I am a graduate student in the Biology Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which means I am in the Joint Program with MIT. I am studying the development of signature whistles in captive-born bottlenose dolphins and expecting to graduate in 1997 or 1998. I graduated in 1992 from Stanford University in Biological Sciences. I originally come from Bethesda, MD, just outside of Washington, DC. Michael Fripp and I were married on May 26, 1996 and I changed my name to Fripp then. He's a graduate student in the Department Aeronautics and Astronautical Engineering at MIT, from Williamsburg, VA.

Professional Interests

I'm working with Dr. Peter Tyack at WHOI but I've done research at several facilities, including Kolmardens Djurpark in Sweden, Sea World in San Diego, and the Hawk's Cay Dolphin Connection in the Florida Keys. My graduate work is funded by a fellowship from the Howard Hughs Medical Institute, as well as research grants from the Coastal Research Center and the Ocean Ventures Fund at WHOI.

As I said, I am studying the development of signature whistles in bottlenose dolphins. I've been looking at how a calf relates to the other animals in the pool with him and how that influences his vocal development. In the process of this, I am studying how calves' relationships develop and how mothers' relationships and vocal production change around the time they give birth. I am also interested in looking at how dolphins perceive whistles and what features of the whistles are particularly salient to the dolphins.

My undergraduate research was on stress hormones and cancer, with Robert Sapolsky at Stanford. Previous to that, I worked at NIMH and NIDDK doing various kinds of research on DNA and proteins. I also spent some time, way back when, at the Georgetown Medical School Pathology Department.