Curriculum Vitae

Box 90444, Durham, NC 27708-0444

(email)

• D.Sc., University College, Oxford, 1995


• D. Phil, University College, Oxford, 1959


• Ph.D., Princeton University, 1956

Areas of Research

Anthropoid origins and evolution

Areas of Interest

Paleontology
Primate Evolution
Anthropoid Evolution
Primate Ecology/Conservation

I am interested in the biology and behavior of living and fossil primates, the diversification of archaic mammals, the origin and radiation of both anthropoideans and Hominidae, and in primate conservation and behavior. My publications have contributed to the understanding of primate history, dating and paleo-environmental context, particularly of Eocene primates of Europe and North America and of the wide variety of Eocene/ Oligocene primates from Egypt that include the earliest well-known higher primates. These contributions deal particularly with the timing and nature of anthropoid origins and diversification. Over the years I have published extensively about the Old World radiation of Miocene-Pliocene apes and its relationship to origin of Hominidae. Several symposia on hominid evolution were organized by me, and I have held a life-long interest in both researching and teaching about various aspects of hominid evolution. I have contributed much to details of primate classification and have described many genera and species. I have also carried out projects dealing with the description, classification, behavior, reproduction, and captive conservation of living prosimians and the anatomy, dating, environments, and causes of extinction of the extinct giant lemurs of Madagascar. I am interested in the conservation of living primates.

Professional Experience / Employment History

• Duke University
  Senior Primate Biologist, Duke University Primate Center, 2002 - present


• Head, Division of Fossil Primates, Duke University Primate Center, 2002 - present


• Scientific Director, Duke University Primate Center, 1991 - 2001


• Professor of Zoology, 1990 - present


• James B. Duke Professor, Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, 1982 - present


• Director, Duke University Primate Center, 1977 - 1991


• Professor of Anthropology and Anatomy, 1977 - 1982


• Yale University
  Professor of Paleontology, Department of Geology and Geophysics, 1967


• Appointment Yale Faculty as Head, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, Yale Peabody Museum, 1960 - 1977


• University of Pennsylvania
  Assistant Professor, Zoology, 1959 - 1961


• Princeton University
  Lecturer, Department of Geology, 1959


• Oxford University
  Demonstrator and Exhibitor, Anthropology, 1956 - 1958

Visiting Positions

Associate Professor of Geology and Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, Yale University, 1960 - 1961

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

• Lifetime Achievement Award, Geological Survey and Mining Authority of Egypt, 2001


• Recipient of the Charles R. Darwin Award of the American Association of Physical Anthropology, 2000


• Elected “Knight of the National Order” of Madagascar, Government of Madagascar, 1998


• Medalist, Centennial Celebration of the Egyptian Geological Survey, 1996


• Elected member of American Philosophical Society, 1994


• Awarded Honorary citizenship Fayum Province, Egypt, 1983


• Elected to membership, U.S. National Academy of Science, 1981


• Winner of the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist's Award, Germany, 1975-1976


• Awarded the Annandale Memorial Medal from the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, 1973


• R.C. Hunt Memorial Fellow in Anthropology, Viking Fund, 1965


• Boise Fund Fellow, Oxford, 1958-1959


• Fulbright Fellow, Utrecht University, Holland (declined), 1956


• General George Marshall Scholar, Oxford University, 1956-1959

Major Grant Support

• Grants:
  
  Recipient of numerous grants from the following sources:
  - National Science Foundation
  - Smithsonian Foreign Currency Program
  - National Geographic Society
  - Wenner-Gren Foundation
  - National Institute of Health
  - Duke Research Council
  - Duke Center For Instructional Technology
  - Duke Arts and Sciences Research Council
  - 12 other foundations or individuals, totalling over $9,000,000.00
  
  Current Support:
  $345,033 "Anthropological and Paleontological Research at the Fossil Primate Sites of the Fayum, Egypt" (National Science Foundation)
  $24,960 “Giant Lemurs and Faunal Extinction in Madagascar” (National Geographic Society)
  pending “Computerization of the Vertebrate Fossil Collection at the Duke University Primate Center” (National Science Foundation)

• Organizing Director of Expeditions to (total of 80), 1961 - present
  Wyoming: 1961-1964; 1967-1968; 1970-1975; 1979-1981; 1983; 1985-1990, 1995,1996, 1999
  North India: 1968-1969, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000
  Iran: 1971
  Nepal: 1976
  Fayum, Egypt: 1961-1968; 1977-2003
  Madagascar: 1982-1984; 1986-1999, 2001-4

  Invited Lectures:

• Invited discussant On anthropoid origins, Barcelona, Spain, 1999


• Invited speaker and honoree at International Primatological Society Meeting, Tananarive Madagascar, 1998


• Speaker and recipient of a distinguished service award, 100th Anniversary Conference, Geological Survey of Egypt, November, 1996


• Participant, Conference on Prosimians, Chester England, September, 1995


• Invited Speaker, University of Pittsburgh Lecture Series in Human Evolution, University of Pittsburgh, September, 1995


• Invited Speaker, Field Museum's International Symposium on Madagascar: Natural and human induced change in Madagascar, June, 1995


• Invited Speaker, 30 Years Later: Repeat of Primate Locomotor Conference, Davis, California, March, 1995


• Invited speaker at Peabody Museum Harvard, lecture series, Peabody Museum Harvard, April, 1994


• . Invited speaker at conference on Thirty Years of International Cooperation, Geological Survey Cairo, Egypt, 1993


• Keynote speaker at Creatures of the Dark Conference, Duke University, May, 1993


• Co-organizer: Conference "Anthropoid Origins", Duke University, May, 1992


• Discussant: "Apes or Ancestors?", American Museum of Natural history, March, 1992


• Clara Jones Langston Visiting Lecturer in Geology, University of Texas, February, 1991


• Public Lecturer: "Human Origins", American Museum of Natural History, January, 1991


• Scientific Lecturer on Human Ancestry, Goddard Space Center, 1990


• Colloquium speaker: "Primate Diversity and Paleontology in the Fayum, Egypt: Search for Ancestors", Northern Illinois University, September, 1988


• Invited speaker: Dedication of New Gibbon Housing, National Zoo, Washington, D.C., May, 1988


• Invited lecturer: Symposium "Speciation, Systematic, and Conservation of Prosimians", Mulhouse, France, July, 1987


• Invited Participant: Primate Specialists' Group IUCN/PSG meetings, Madagascar, Oct./Nov. , 1985


• Invited Contributor: "Taung Diamond Jubilee Symposium", South Africa, Jan.-Feb. 1985


• Participant and Public Forum Lecturer: "Ancestors: Four million years of humanity", American Museum of Natural History, New York, April, 1984


• Public Lecturer: Paleontological Colloquium, University of Zurich "Die neuesten Funde aus dem Oligozan vom Fayum (Aegypten)", February, 1984


• Public Lecturer: College de France, Paris, 1) Expedition to Egypt-1983; 2) Problems in the Origin of Hominids; March 1984, 1983, 1984


• Smithsonian Associate Lecturer, December, 1982


• Invited Member: working group on "Recent advances in our knowledge of the evolution of Primates", Pontifical Academy of Science, Rome, May, 1982


• Invited Participant: Colloque International du C.N.R.S. "Les processus de l'hominization", May, 1980


• Invited Participant: discussion meeting on "The emergence of man", The Royal Society, London, March, 1980


• Invited Lecturer: The conference entitled "Landing on our feet -- adaptability and human evolution", Johns Hopkins University, February, 1979


• Invited Member, "Human Origins Conference", Nat. Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., May, 1978


• Distinguished Lecturer, Dept. Anth., Univ. Pittsburgh, February, 1976


• Invited Participant: conference on "Progress in Molecular Anthropology", Burg-Wartenstein, July-Aug. 1975


• David French Lecturer (Nat. Hist.), Claremont Colleges, November, 1974


• . Barbour-Schramm Memorial Lecturer, U. of Nebraska, April, 1974


• Symposium participant: Conference on "African Hominidae of the Plio-Pleistocene, Wenner-Gren Foundation, February, 1974


• Invited Discussant: Seminar workshop on "New Hominids from East Rudolf", Wenner-Gren Foundation, New York,, February, 1973


• Invited contributor, Symposium on Prosimian Primate Evolution, London, April, 1972


• Invited lecturer, symposium on the "Evolution of the Nervous System and Behavior", Section on Tertiary Mammal Evolution, Tallahassee, March, 1972


• . Invited contributor, conference celebrating the 75th Anniversary, Egyptian Geol. Survey, Cairo, December, 1971


• Organizing Chairman: Symposium on "The Descent of Man", Philadelphia, AAA Meetings, December, 1971


• . Chairman of session on: "Paleontology, Evolution, and Anatomy", Third Int. Cong. Primatology, Zurich, August 3, 1970


• Invited Participant: Conference on "Functional and Evolutionary Biology of Primates", Burg-Wartenstein, Austria, July, 1970


• Honorary Lecturer on "Emergence of the Family of Man", Royal Canadian Institute, Toronto, February, 1970


• Honorary Lecturer, symposium: "Evolution Molecules to Man", Am. Chemical Soc., Kalamazoo, October 15, 1969


• Invited contributor, conference on "Systematics of Old World Monkeys", Wenner-Gren Foundation, Burg-Wartenstein, Austria, July, 1969


• Invited Discussant: Symposium on "Human Evolution in the Light of Recent Paleo-Anthropological Discoveries", Mexico City, Am. Assoc. Phys. Anthropology, April 10, 1969


• Invited member and panel discussant: "Inter-relationships between Early Man and the Primates", 2nd Int. Cong. Primatology, Atlanta, July, 1968


• Invited by French Government as contributor: International Paleontological Colloquium, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, June, 1966


• . Invited Member: Primatology Conference, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., December, 1965


• Invited participant, Primate Locomotion Conference, Davis, California, August, 1965


• Invited Discussant, Conference on "Origin of Man", Chicago, April, 1965


• Chairman: Session on "Fossil Man and his Antecedents", AAA Meetings, Philadelphia, November, 1962

Professional Affiliations

Committees:

1956-76, 1994- Research Associate, American Museum of Natural History
1985-pres. Member, Primate Specialists Group, IUCNature
1987-pres. Member, Editorial Board, Folia Primatologia
1988-pres. Board Member, Malagasy Faunal Group
1992-1998 Member of the Committee on well-being of Nonhuman Primates, National Academy of Sciences
1996-pres. Board Member, Lower Primate Conservation Foundation


Scholarly Societies:

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
American Association of Physical Anthropologists
Sigma Xi
Society of Human Biology
International Association of Human Biologists
International Primatological Society

Publications (listed separately)

  Ph.D. Students Supervised

• Erik R. Seiffert, (2003-0000)