News Item
Original Idea of the Year: How did the wolf become man's best friend?
There are hundreds of different dog breeds, and they all originate from the wolf. But when was the wolf tamed and became the dog we know today? And by whom? This is what the winner of the Original Idea of the Year-prize, Christy Anna Hipsley from the University of Copenhagen, is researching.
Independent Research Fund Denmark awarded the Original Idea of the Year-prize on Thursday, September 26th, during the fund’s annual research conference. The recipient, Christy Anna Hipsley, is researching the domestication of dogs and hopes to find the definitive answers to the history of the dog.
Christy Anna Hipsley is employed at the Department of Biology at the University of Copenhagen and is investigating this in her research project DOG-ROOTS: An integrative framework for deconstructing the origin of domestic dogs.
In the quest to find answers, Christy Anna Hipsley will, among other things, perform X-ray/CT scans on dog skulls, which will allow her to measure small details and developments in the bones. The dog skulls are borrowed from existing museum exhibitions.
The next step is to map DNA fossils from the ancient bones and compare them to DNA from living dogs. This aims to provide an understanding of the transition from wolf to dog. Finally, Christy Anna Hipsley will use carbon dating to establish a more specific timeline for the dog’s evolution, currently estimated to have occurred sometime between 40,000 and 15,000 years ago.
With these tools, Christy Anna Hipsley will be able to get closer to some answers that can give us a better understanding of the dog’s origins and its development over time, from a dangerous predator to a cuddly companion.
Recognition for the original idea
Christy Anna Hipsley’s idea is so original in its approach and methods that she won the prize for Original Idea of the Year 2023.
The award is given by Independent Research Fund Denmark to a researcher who, over the past year, has presented a research idea that demonstrates a particular degree of originality – for example, in topic choice, approach, and method. This year, the award was presented at the conference by Her Majesty the Queen, who has been a patron of the fund since May 2024.
"Christy Anna Hipsley is the winner of the Original Idea of the Year-prize because she addresses a topic that has been debated for many years and is of broad public interest. At the same time, she works in a multidisciplinary way, combining already known methods with the latest techniques to reconstruct the evolutionary history of dogs," says Søren Serritzlew, Chairman of the Board for Denmark’s Independent Research Fund.
Christy Anna Hipsley herself says, "For me, it’s a sign that we can still approach the most fundamental human questions in new and exciting ways. Technologies like CT scanning open new avenues for studying ancient and precious specimens, which is fantastic, as museums are full of them. This prize shows that it is never too late to revisit old hypotheses and see them from a new perspective."
About the award recipient
- Christy Anna Hipsley is originally from Baltimore, USA, but her research career has taken her to Sweden, Germany, Australia, and now Denmark.
- She currently works at the University of Copenhagen, where she researches the history of dogs.
- She lives in Frederiksberg with her partner and their mixed-breed dog, which comes from a shelter in Berlin.
About the prize
The purpose of the award is to honor original thinking, which is important for advancing Danish research. The award is given to a researcher who, in 2023, received funding from Independent Research Fund Denmark for an idea that is original in, for example, topic choice, approach, method, etc.
This is the fifth year the fund has awarded the prize, which consists of an artwork and flowers.