Biography
I retired in 2003 from Temple, but until recently have continued with graduate student supervision in the Department. I remain active in publication. Past professional positions held include: Director, Physical Anthropology Program, National Science Foundation; Advisory Council, Wenner-Gren Foundation; Secretary, Anthropology Section, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Chair, Publications Committee, American Association of Physical Anthropologists; and various editorial positions for scholarly journals.
My area of specialization is in human biological variation in the Southwest Pacific (Solomon Islands, New Britain and Papua New Guinea), where I've done fieldwork over the past 30 years, with support from the NSF, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and National Geographic Society. From the beginning (my Ph.D. thesis), my research has focused on revealing the extraordinary biological (genetic) diversity in Melanesia and attempting to interpret it and its causes, and we now have a very good picture of how that relates to Polynesian and East Asian origins.
Information about my most recently published book, links to selected articles, and a slideshow of images from my fieldwork over the years are available at my personal website.