Events + Lectures
Upcoming Events + Lectures
BECOMING HUMAN: 30 Years of Research and Discovery
Gala Dinner and Symposium wrap up Year of Celebration
IHO's 30th Anniversary calendar of events will end with two significant events—a Gala Dinner to celebrate this historic milestone with Founding Director Don Johanson as featured speaker, and a one-day Symposium featuring top experts in paleoanthropology to discuss the current state of research and the future of human origins research.
The Gala Dinner will be at the Phoenix Zoo on April 26, 2012. More information can be found at iho.asu.edu/gala.
The Symposium will be at Neeb Hall on April 27, 2012 from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. More information is available at iho.asu.edu/symposium_2012.
Speakers include:
External Scientists
Zeray Alemseged, Director and Curator of Anthropology, California Academy of Sciences, focuses on the discovery and interpretation of hominid fossil remains and their environments with emphasis on fieldwork designed to acquire new data on early hominid skeletal biology, environmental context, and behavior.
Robin Dunbar, University of Oxford, England, a Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, whose work focuses on the evolution of sociality—social and behavioral decision making and cognitive underpinnings of social behavior.
Jean-Jacques Hublin, Max Planck Institute, Germany, Director of the Department of Human Evolution. Hublin has dedicated much of his career to the study of the biological and cultural evolution of Neandertals and to the origin of modern humans.
Michael Ruse, Florida State University, Professor, Philosophy of Biology, is well known for his work on the creationism/evolution controversy.
Ian Tattersall, Curator of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York. IHO Board Member and travel leader to Madagascar, he is a long-time scholar of human origins and the emergence of human cognition.
Carol Ward, Professor, Department of Pathology and Anatomical Science, University of Missouri. Evolution of humans and our closest relatives, apes, and monkeys.
Bernard Wood, Professor of Human Origins, The George Washington University. A medically qualified paleoanthropologist who practiced as a surgeon before moving into full-time academic life, Wood’s research centers on increasing our understanding of human evolutionary history.
ASU Institute of Human Origins Scientists
William Kimbel, Director and Professor. Plio-Pleistocene hominid evolution in Africa and the late Pleistocene of the Middle East.
Donald Johnson, Founding Director and Professor. His 1974 discovery of the world’s best-known 3.2-million-year-old fossil, “Lucy,” has become a cornerstone in human evolutionary studies.
Curtis Marean, Associate Director and Professor. Origins of modern humans, focusing on sites in South Africa.
Kaye Reed, Associate Professor. Ecological context of primate and hominin evolution.
Gary Schwartz, Associate Professor. Evolutionary history of primate and human growth and development as evidenced from developing tooth tissues.
Mark Spencer, Assistant Professor. The mechanics and evolution of the jaws and teeth in primates.
Chris Campisano, Assistant Professor. The environmental context of hominid evolution, specifically geology.
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS DON JOHANSON?
Founding Director Donald Johanson travels and lectures the world in search of new friends and new adventures on behalf of the Institute of Human Origins.
Where is he now? Check in at our Facebook page—we will post his upcoming lectures and travels there.
PREVIOUS 30TH ANNIVERSARY EVENTS
INSTITUTE OF HUMAN ORIGINS MUSEUM EXHIBITION
Museum of Anthropology, School of Human Evolution and Social Change
See more information at the Museum Exhibition website.
The exhibition closed December 2011. To read about the exhibition, go to ASU News.
30th Anniversary Lecture Series Concluded
Neandertals inhabited Western Eurasia from approximately 300- to 30-thousand years ago. They are distinguished by a unique combination of anatomical traits and are commonly associated with Middle Paleolithic lithic industries. Current consensus among paleoanthropologists is that they represent a separate Eurasian human lineage, which evolved in isolation and which shared a common ancestor with modern humans in the Middle Pleistocene. Some aspects of the distinctive Neandertal anatomy may have evolved in response to selection related to the extreme cold of the European glacial cycles, although genetic drift seems to be responsible for the evolution of many Neandertal characteristic features. Neandertals disappear from the fossil record ca. 30 ka BP, a few millennia after the arrival of modern humans in Europe, and the causes of their extinction are debated. The retrieval of ancient mitochondrial and, more recently, nuclear DNA from Neandertal fossils puts us in the unique position to combine fossil with genetic evidence to address questions about their evolution, paleobiology, and eventual fate.
Katerina Harvati is Professor of Paleoanthropology at the Institute for Early Prehistory and Medieval Archaeology and the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoecology, University of Tübingen. Her research focuses on Neandertal evolution, modern human origins, and the application of 3D geometric morphometrics and virtual anthropology to paleoanthropology.
Origins of Modern HumansChris Stringer, Natural History Museum London
Thursday, February 2, 2012
The evolution of the human lineage is inextricably linked to its material culture. Our ancestors have been making and using tools for over three million years. The relationship between human biological and cultural evolution is complex. The deep time of the archaeological record allows us to investigate the impact of ancient technology on our own evolutionary trajectory. Braun will review patterns of tool manufacture and use across the African continent based on his own fieldwork on sites that span the first million-and-a-half years of human technology. He explores how the ways in which early humans made stone artifacts may provide some basic parameters for the current technology driven human condition. To download a lecture poster, click here (pdf).
Origin of the Genus HomoLeslie Aiello, President, Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Inc.
Thursday, October 6
Drawing on the fossil record and comparative evidence from humans and other living animals, it is becoming clear that cooperation must have evolved early and was one of the most important factors in the evolution of Homo.Through cooperation, hominins created their own niche within the changing landscape of early Africa, which in turn became essential to their survival, evolution, and ultimate expansion into the rest of the world.
Terry Harrison
Who Are the Earliest Human Ancestors?Thursday, September 8
Terry Harrison is a professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for the Study of Human Origins at New York University. This lecture explores the inherent difficulties in identifying the earliest hominins and in drawing inferences about what they may have looked like. Harrison's research focuses on the evolutionary history of primates using the fossil evidence. He has conducted paleontological fieldwork in Europe, East Africa, and China. Currenly, he is the director of an international multidisciplinary field project at the Pliocene hominin locality of Laetoli in northern Tanzania.
William McGrewPrimates and Human Origins Thursday, March 24, 2011
McGrew, a Fellow of the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies at University of Cambridge, UK, is the inaugural speaker for a lecture series celebrating IHO's 30th Anniversary. McGrew, a professor in primatology and author of the book, The Cultured Chimpanzee: Reflections on Cultural Primatology, has been chasing wild chimpanzees since 1972.
Peter deMenocalClimate and Human Evolution
Friday, April 29, 2011
Peter deMencoal is a Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. He studies marine sediments to understand how and why past climates have changed, with a specific interest in placing contemporary climate change trends within the context of climate chanes during the prehistoric past. Current areas of research include stability of war cinate periods, African monsoonal climate, ancient cultural responses to rapid climate change, and the role of climate change in evolution of early human ancestors.
Previous Events + Lectures
EXPLORING HUMAN ORIGINS LECTURE: RICHARD COWLING
Mediterranean-type Ecosystems of the World: Evolution and Conservation of Biodiversity in Extra-Tropical Hotspots
Friday, September 2Noon–1:30 pm
Wrigley Hall, room 481 Richard Cowling is a professor in the Department of Botany, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa, who is collaborating with scientists from the Institute of Human Origins in a project to try to understand the significance of the Cape Floral Region for human evolution. This presentation explores the historical determinants of the evolution of the world’s five Mediterranean-type ecosystems and discusses the implications of this for biodiversity conservation, focusing on the spectacularly diverse Cape Floral Region of South Africa. Cowling has published extensively in the scientific and popular literature on the ecology and conservation of Mediterranean-climate and arid biomes. He is widely acclaimed for his contribution to the theory and application of conservations science. The National Research Foundation has rated him as a world leader in conservation science, and he has been awarded a Pew Fellowship (USA), a Distinguished Service Award by the Society for Conservation Biology (USA), Cape Action for People and the Environment Gold Award for Innovating Conservation, a Flora Conservation Award by the Botanical Society of South Africa and is an Elected Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences USA. This event is cosponsored by Institute of Human Origins School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning School of Life Sciences Global Institute of Sustainability RSVP sustainabilityevents@asu.edu (Lunch will be served.) This event is free and open to the public. Parking is available on ASU Tempe campus. Link to lecture webpage and poster pdf. Link to ASU events calendar listing.
>Kaye Reed was the Plenary Speaker November 5, 2010 at the Texas Association of Biological Anthropologists annual conference at Baylor University. For more information>>
The Great Debate: Can Science Tell Us Right from Wrong?
Saturday, November 6, 2010
7:00 pm
ASU Gammage Auditorium
The ASU Origins Project, in cooperation with Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, the Faculty of Philosophy at Cambridge
University, and the Science Network, are pleased to present The Great Debate.
Tickets go on sale September 30 at the ASU Gammage Auditorium box office and at Ticketmaster.com.
Tickets are $5 and $10 plus applicable service fees.
Monday and Tuesday, September 21, 2011: SHESC Colloqium
See more information on the SHESC website, here.
September 20 Robert Boyd, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
The Cultural Niche
3:30 pm Discovery Hall 250
September 21 Joan B. Silk, Department of Anthropology & Center for Society and Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles
From Social Bonds to Altruistic Preferences: Tracing the Roots of Human Cooperation
3:30 pm Discovery Hall 150
Lecture by Biological Anthropologist and author Robert Boyd
How Culture Transformed Human Evolution
Tuesday, September 21, 7:00 pm
Design North, CDN 60
Boyd argues that both our exceptional adaptability and our propensity for folly stem from the fact that humans, unlike any other animal, acquire important components of their behavior by observing the behavior of others. This ability allows us to rapidly evolve superb culturally transmitted adaptations to local conditions, but it also necessarily leads to the cultural evolution of maladaptive behavior. Link to ASU events page. Link to e-announcement. Link to ASU News
“Who Are You Calling Neanderthal? Tracing Our Ancestors”
Friday, September 17, 5:30–6:30 pm:
Arizona Science Center: Science Cafe series features IHO Director Bill Kimbel and School of Human Evolution and Social Change Professor Anne Stone. Sponsored by ASU’s Center for Nanotechnology in Society, the series brings together members of the community and university scientists to discuss how science and technology can change the future. Stone and Kimbel will speak for 15–20 minutes, followed by a Q+A session with the public. For more information, visit www.azscience.org. ASU Events link
Late Lessons from Early History
presents Rainer Zahn, Catalan Institute of Research and Advance Studies, Barcelona, Spain
Tuesday, September 7, 5:30 pmDiscovery Hall 150, Tempe Campus
Professor Zahn will speak on "The Atlantic Overturning Circulation in a Changing World: Does the Agulhas Current Off Southern Africa (Yet Again) Decide the Fate of Human Development?" More information: http://asuevents.asu.edu/events/info?ID=5376
National Geographic Society Lecture, National Geographic, Washington, DC
Don Johanson/Lucy's Legacy: Lecture, book sale and book signing December 2, 2009
National Geographic Society Lecture, Las Vegas, NV
Don Johanson/Lecture and book signing: JW Marriott Resort and Spa at Summerlin, October 13, 2009
Lucy Comes to Times Square
Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) at Discovery Times Square Exposition, a facility located in New York City. The fossil, and over 100 cultural artifacts that compose Lucy's Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia, were on display June 24, 2009–October 25, 2009.
Origins Symposium
The Institute's faculty helped Arizona State University launch its Origins Initiative, along with director Lawrence Krauss and other world-renowned scientists and researchers, April 3–6, 2009.
Lucy's Legacy (opens pdf file)
Don Johanson lectured at Porterville College March 20, 2009.
On the Origin of Our Species: Darwin and Human Evolution (opens pdf file)
As part of ASU's Darwinfest, Bernard Wood, university professor of human origins at George Washington University and adjunct senior scientist at the National Museum of Natural History, gave a public lecture on Darwin and human evolution. The presentation was followed by a panel discussion including noted physical anthropologists Don Johanson and Bill Kimbel. Mark Spencer, a physical anthropologist in ASU's School of Human Evolution and Social Change and the Institute of Human Origins, served as panel moderator. The lecture and discussion 3:00–5:30 pm, Monday, February 9, 2009, Memorial Union, Pima Room.
Darwin Today: Evolution and Scientific Thought
One-day symposium at the University of Southern California featuring Don Johanson, Eugenie Scott, Steve Finkel, David Bottjer, and Craig Stanford.