The Institute of Human Origins is one of the preeminent research organizations in the world devoted to the science of human origins.
Through groundbreaking research and discovery at field sites around the world, the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University has led the way in creating new knowledge about our place in the world and how we came to occupy it—collaborative research that promises to reveal how our species transcended its position as a prominent species on a millions-of-years-old African landscape to become the preeminent species on the planet today.
IHO faculty are leaders in research and teaching
ASU Excellence
- 1 Endowed Chair
- 1 Endowed Professorship
- 2 Regents Professors
- 1 ASU Foundation Professor
- 1 Faculty Women's Association Mentor Awardee
- 2 Provost's Faculty Achievement Awardees for Defining Edge Research in Social Science
National and International Excellence
- 3 National Academy of Sciences Fellows
- 1 Andrew Carnegie Fellow
- 1 Guggenheim Fellow
- 5 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Research Funding
IHO has a long-term commitment to strategically important field sites and cutting-edge analysis supported by public and private funding.
Select funding sources include
- Part of a multi-institution project with $1.2 million W. M. Keck Foundation grant that will explore how ecological factors millions of years ago affected the evolution of our ancestors
- $1 million Hyde Family Foundation for HOMER: Human Origins, Migration and Evolution Research (2017–2022)
- $4.9 million John Templeton Foundation for Evolutionary Foundations of Human Uniqueness project (2014–2017)
- $1.7 million National Science Foundation Paleolakebed Drilling Project IHO joins an international team in Kenya and Ethiopia (2013)
- $2.5 million National Science Foundation Human Origins: Moving in New Directions Pinnacle Point research team awarded largest ever NSF grant for anthropology (2007)
IHO Field Sites
IHO researchers are currently working in or have been active in field sites in
- Bolivia
- China
- Ethiopia
- Fiji Islands
- India
- Italy
- Kenya
- Malawi
- Mongolia
- Morocco
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- South Africa
- Tanzania
- Uganda
- Venezuela