CHES member establishes new field school

Jack Harris established the Primatology, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Field School, which conducted its first session in 2007. This program, along with the Swahili Studies and Coastal Peoples of Kenya Field School and Koobi Fora Field School, is jointly coordinated by Rutgers and the Kenya National Museums, with former and current Rutgers graduate students, including several Kenyans, serving as instructors and co-coordinators with Prof. Harris.

All of the field schools are open to undergraduate students from around the world, a significant proportion of whom are from Rutgers.

Robert Scott, the newest member of CHES

Robert Scott was hired as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers and became a member of CHES in 2007. Prof. Scott is a physical anthropologist and paleoecologist who received a Ph.D. from the University of Texas in 2004, and thereafter held a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Arkansas before coming to Rutgers. He has conducted important work on the paleoecology of Miocene hominoids, the ancestors of the human lineage. He has also co-developed a new method for reconstructing early hominin diets based on microscopic wear on teeth, as described in Nature in 2005.

Robert Trivers wins Crafoord Prize

Robert Trivers was awarded the 25th Crafoord Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The prize is the equivalent of a Nobel, awarded annually on a rotating basis to a scientist in one of four disciplines (Biosciences, Geosciences, Astronomy, and Mathematics). The prize honors Prof. Trivers’ seminal contributions over the last 40 years to the understanding of the evolution of complex social behaviors, including cooperation and conflict among kin and non-kin.