Dr. Julie Elie at the University of California, Berkeley, has been awarded the 2026 Coller-Dolittle Prize for two-way interspecies communication.
She identified 11 core calls in zebra finch vocabulary and their meanings, demonstrating that the birds announce identity and activity, recognize individuals via signatures, and sometimes confuse calls by meaning rather than sound.
The prize is funded by the Jeremy Coller Foundation and partnered with Tel Aviv University. Professor Yossi Yovel, the judging panel chair, described the work as a key moment in the field.
A Path to the Grand Prize
A $10 million grand prize exists for solving two-way human-animal communication. Elie used machine learning and behavioral tests to validate her classifications.