Irene Pepperberg received her bachelor's degree from MIT and her graduate degrees from Harvard. Before returning to the Boston area, she held academic positions at Purdue University, Northwestern University, and the University of Arizona. Beginning in September 1999, she became a visiting associate professor at the MIT Media Lab, and later accepted a research scientist position there, leaving her tenured professorship at the University of Arizona. After leaving MIT, she was awarded a Radcliffe Fellowship (2004-2005) and has been an adjunct associate professor in the department of psychology at Brandeis University since 2002. She is also a research associate in the department of psychology at Harvard. She has received fellowships from the Harry Frank Guggenheim and Whitehall Foundations, and numerous grants from the National Science Foundation. Her book, The Alex Studies, describing more than 20 years of peer-reviewed studies on the cognitive and communicative abilities of Grey parrots, received favorable mention from the New York Times and Science. Her book, Alex & Me, was a New York Times bestseller.