Graduates affiliated with the Institute of Human Origins are going on to challenging and impactful careers in science, academia, and research. Below is a growing list of our alumni and where they are making a mark on the field of anthropology.
2025
Mario Andres Apata Mamani
Postdoctoral Research at the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Dissertation: Ancient Genomics and The Molecular Mechanisms of the Human Arsenic Tolerance in Northern Chile
Advisors: Anne Stone (co-chair), Melissa Wilson (co-chair), Jeanne Wilson-Rawls, Kelly Knudson and Noah Snyder-Mackler
Contact information:
2024
Adele Crane
Dissertation: Plylogenomics and zoonotic spillover of mycobacterium leprae in the Pacific Islands and Brazil
Advisors: Anne Stone, Chair, Keolu Fox, Arvind Varsani, Melissa Wilson
Kevin C. Lee
Adjunct Faculty, Public Health, University of Puget Sound
[email protected]
Dissertation: Chimpanzees as a model for evaluating the evolution of human hyper-sociality
Advisors: Kevin Langergraber, Chair, Joan Silk, Ian Gilby
2023
Minhua Yan
Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (France)
[email protected]
Dissertation: How norms are maintained and how they change: A mathematical model and a field study
Advisors: Robert Boyd and Sarah Mathew, co-chairs; Dan Hruschka
2022
Jonathan Page
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri
[email protected]
Dissertation: The Evolution of Stone Tool Traditions
Advisors: Charles Perreault (chair), Michael Barton, Matt Peoples
2021
Joel Bray
Director of Measurement and Analytics, Authentic, Phoenix, AZ
Dissertation: Social relationships in male chimpanzees: Form, function, and development
Advisors: Ian Gilby (chair), Joan Silk, Kevin Langergraber, Zarin Machanda
E. Susanne Daly
Lecturer, Biological Sciences, Sailsbury University
[email protected]
Dissertation: Premolar molarization in Haplorrhine primates
Advisors: Gary Schwartz (chair), Lucas Delezene, William Kimbel
Ellis Locke
Assistant Professor, Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine
[email protected]
Dissertation: Molar shape, function, and tooth wear in the evolution of Cercopithecoid bilophodonty
Advisors: Kaye Reed (chair), Gary Schwartz, Jay Kelley
Samantha K. Patterson
Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Anthropology, New York University
[email protected]
Dissertation: Effects of early life experiences on development and adult outcomes in wild olive baboons
Advisor: Joan B. Silk
Irene Smail
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
[email protected]
Dissertation: Environmental correlates of community structure in living and fossil Cercopithecid primates
Advisors: Kaye Reed (chair), Chris Gilbert, Christopher Campisano
Emily Zawacki
Postdoctoral Researcher, ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration
[email protected]
Dissertation: Plio-Pleistocene sediments provenance and erosian rates along the East African Rift System
Advisors: Ramon Arrowsmith, Christopher Campisano
2020
Paige Madison
Science writer
[email protected]
Dissertation: Discovering human origins: Fossils, practices, and controversies
Advisors: Jane Mainschein (chair), William Kimbel, Manfred Laubichler, Richard Creath, Ben Hulbut
Amanda McGrosky
Postdoctoral Associate, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Duke University
[email protected]
Dissertation: Hard tissue and environmental correlates of primate growth rate variation
Advisors: Gary Schwartz (chair), Jason Kamilar, William Kimbel
Chalachew Seyoum
Assistant Professor, University of Arizona College of Medicine–Phoenix
[email protected]
Dissertation: Hominin dietary niche breadth expansion during Pliocene environmental change in eastern Africa
Advisor: William Kimbel and Kaye Reed (co-chairs)
2019
Andrew Bishop
Dissertation: Costly signaling and prey choice: The signaling value of hunted game
Advisor: Kim Hill, Robert Boyd, Benjamin Trumble
Dominique Garello
Instructor, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University
[email protected]
Dissertation: Tephrostratigraphy of Pliocene drill cores from Kenya and Ethiopia, and Pleistocene exposures in the Ledi-Geraru Research Project Area, Ethiopia: Geological context for the evolution of Australopithecus and Homo
Advisor: Ramon Arrowsmith and Chris Campisano
Neysa Grider-Potter
Assistant Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology
Northeast Ohio Medical University,
[email protected]
Dissertation: Form and function of the primate cervical vertebral column
Advisor: William Kimbel
Jacob A Harris
[email protected]
Dissertation: Probability models of bone surface modification and application to fossil evidence from Ledi-Geraru (2.82 Ma) and Dikika (3.9 Ma), Afar Ethiopia
Advisor: Curtis Marean
Ignacio Aguilar Lazagabaster
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Postdoctoral Researcher, Museum fur Naturkunde, Berlin
[email protected]
Dissertation: Evolution and paleoecology of Pliocene Suidae (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) in the lower Awash Valley (Afar, Ethiopia): Implications for hominin evolution and paleoenvironments
Advisor: Kaye E Reed
2018
John Rowan
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University at Albany, SUNY
[email protected]
Dissertation: Abiotic and biotic drivers of turnover and community assembly in African mammals
Advisor: Kaye E. Reed
Emily Hallett
Postdoctoral Scientist with the Pan African Research Group
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
[email protected]
Dissertation: Zooarchaeological and taphonomic analyses of Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from the Middle and Later Stone Age occupations at Contrebandiers Cave, Atlantic Coast, Morocco
Advisor: Curtis Marean
2017
Hallie Edmonds
Lecturer, Northern Arizona University
[email protected]
Dissertation: The functional morphology of the primate zygomatic arch in relation to diet
Advisor: Kaye Reed
Halszka Glowacka
Assistant Professor, The University of Arizona College of Medicine—Phoenix
[email protected]
Dissertation: Biomechanical constraints on molar emergence in primates
Advisor: Gary Schwartz
Genevieve Housman
Postdoctoral Scholar, Genetics Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago
[email protected]
Dissertation: Primate skeletal epigenetics: Evolutionary implications of DNA methylation patterns in the skeletal tissues of human and nonhuman primates
Advisor: Anne Stone
Maria Nieves-Colon
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota
[email protected]
Dissertation: The population history of the Caribbean: Perspectives from ancient and modern DNA analysis
Advisor: Anne Stone
Simen Oestmo
Director, Data Science at Sound Thinking, Inc., Sacramento CA
[email protected]
Dissertation: A formal modeling approach to understanding stone tool raw material selection in the South African Middle Stone Age: A case study from Pinnacle Point, South Africa
Advisor: Curtis Marean
2016
Kierstin Catlett
Associate Director of Research
Optum Center for Research and Innovation
Dissertation: A dental topographic analysis of deciduous tooth wear in hominoids
Advisor: Gary Schwartz
2015
Hope Williams
Director of Planning, Oats Overnight
Dissertation: Micromammals from the Greater Cape Floristic Region near Pinnacle Point, on the South Coast of South Africa
Advisor: Curtis Marean
Benjamin Schoville
Lecturer in Archaeology, School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Australia
[email protected]
Dissertation: Landscape variability in tool-use and edge damage formation in South African Middle Stone Age lithic assemblages
Harmon Scholarship 2013-2014
Advisor: Curtis Marean
Amy Shapiro
Data Scientist, Yelp
[email protected]
Dissertation: The relationship between variation in dental microwear textures and annual, season, and monthly dietary variation in African Old World monkeys (Cercopithecidae)
Advisor: Kaye Reed
2014
Terry Ritzman
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
Washington University School of Medicine
[email protected]
Dissertation: A comparative radiographic investigation of facial projection in Anthropoid primates
Advisor: Gary Schwartz
Caitlin Schrein
Federal Relations Advisor
Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington DC
Dissertation: Where did you come from? Where will you go? Human evolutionary biology education and American students' academic interests and achievments, professional goals, and socioscientific decision making
Advisor: Donald Johanson
Laura Stroik
Associate Professor, Biomedical Sciences, Grand Valley State University, Michigan
[email protected]
Dissertation: The dietary competitive environment of the origination and early diversification of Euprimates in North America
Advisor: Gary Schwartz
2013
Thierra Nalley
Assistant Professor, Dept of Medical Anatomical Sciences, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA
[email protected]
Dissertation: Positional behaviors and the neck: A comparative analysis of the cervical vertebrae of living primates and fossil hominids
Advisor: William Kimbel
Samantha Russak
Chief of Research and Welfare
Tanganyika Wildlife Park, Goddard, KS
[email protected]
Dissertation: Ecological role of dry-habitat chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at Issa, Ugall, Tanzania
Advisor: Kaye Reed
2012
Jocelyn Bernatchez
Southwest Assistant Director of Cultural Resources
WestLand Engineering & Environmental Services, Inc.
[email protected]
Dissertation: The role of ochre in the development of modern human behavior: A case study from South Africa
Advisor: Curtis Marean
Lynn Copes Tommasini
Associate Professor of Medical Sciences, Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine, Quinnipiac University, North Haven, CT
[email protected]
Dissertation: Comparative and experimental investigations of cranial robusticity in Mid-Pleistocene hominins
Advisor: William Kimbel
Jamie Hodgkins
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Denver
[email protected]
Dissertation: Tracking climate-driven changes in Neandertal subsistence behaviors and prey mobility patterns
Advisor: Curtis Marean
Lynn Lucas
Newcomer Science and Biology Teacher
Memorial Pathway Academy High School, Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
[email protected]
Dissertation: Variation in dental morphology and bite force along the tooth row in anthropoids
Advisor: Mark Spencer
2011
Lucas Delezene
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas
[email protected]
Dissertation: Morphological integration and the anthropoid dentition
Advisor: William Kimbel
2010
Kristi Lewton
Associate Professor of Clinical Integrative Anatomical Sciences
Keck School of Medicine, USC
[email protected]
Dissertation: Locomotor function and the evolution of the primate pelvis
Advisor: Mark Spencer
Caley Orr
Associate Professor, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Modern Human Anatomy Program, University of Colorado School of Medicine
[email protected]
Dissertation: Adaptations to knuckle-walking and digitigrady: A three-dimensional kinematic and morphometric analysis of the anthropoid wrist
Advisor: Mark Spencer
Jeremiah Scott
Assistant Professor of Anatomy, Dept of Medical Anatomical Sciences, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA
[email protected]
Dissertation: Nonsocial influences on canine size in anthropoid primates
Advisor: William Kimbel
Claire Terhune
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas
[email protected]
Dissertation: The temporomandibular joint in anthropoid primates; functional, allometric, and phylogenetic influences
Advisor: William Kimbel
Amy Rector
Associate Professor of Anthropology, School of World Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
[email protected]
Dissertation: Mammal community evolution and biogeography through time in the Western Cape, South Africa
Advisor: Kaye Reed
2009
Marc Jacofsky
Vice President of Research and Development and Director of the SHRI-CORE Orthopedic Research Labs, Center for Orthopedic Research and Education/The CORE Institute, Phoenix, AZ
Dissertation: Comparative muscle moment arms of the primate thumb: Homo, Pan, Pongo, and Papio
2008
Jessica Thompson
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Yale University
[email protected]
Dissertation: Zooarchaeological tests for modern human behavior at Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, southwestern Cape, South Africa
Advisor: Curtis Marean
2007
Brian Villmoare
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
[email protected]
Dissertation: A geometric morphometric analysis of the mid-facial region of fossil hominins, modern humans, and great apes
Advisor: William Kimbel
2006
Hamed Vahdati Nasab
Associate Professor of Archaeology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
[email protected]
Dissertation: Three-dimensional study of the midfacial region in European Middle and Late Pleistocene hominids
Advisors: Donald Johanson and Geoff Clark
2005
Elizabeth Harmon (deceased)
CUNY Hunter College, New York, NY
Dissertation: A comparative analysis of femoral morphology in Australopithecus afarensis: Implications for the evolution of bipedal locomotion
Advisor: William Kimbel
A research scholarship for doctoral students has been established in Elizabeth Harmon's name by her parents. If you would like to contribute to this scholarship fund, please contact William Kimbel at [email protected] or see more information at iho.asu.edu/support
2002
Shara Bailey
Director, Center for the Study of Human Origins
Associate Chair, Department of Anthropology
Associate Professor of Anthropology, New York University, NY
[email protected]
Dissertation: Neandertal dental morphology: Implications for modern human origins
Advisor: William Kimbel