The Institute of Human Origins (IHO) was founded in 1981 as a California non-profit organization based in Berkeley. Directed by Donald C. Johanson, the scientific mission of IHO is the strategic implementation of multidisciplinary field and laboratory research on the fossil evidence for human evolution. A second founding goal of IHO programs is the interpretation of the results of paleoanthropological research for the public, through a wide array of print, film and spoken media. From its inception, IHO has been governed by a board of directors that provides strategic guidance and financial support for IHO’s goals.
In 1997, IHO accepted an invitation to move to ASU as an ABOR-approved research center under the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), and IHO embraced this move. In July 2008, Johanson stepped down as director of the institute and William Kimbel was named the new director. Johanson has assumed a new role as founding director, which will take him to a variety of cities and countries, educating a new generation about the discovery of "Lucy" and what the discovery has meant to our understanding of human origins.
