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Dennis Stanford with arrowheads

Dr Stanford in front of poster

Dennis Stanford
Anthropologist


Title:

Dennis Stanford, Ph.D.

  • Phone:202-633-1884
  • Fax: 202-357-2208
  • E-mail: stanford@si.edu


  • Mailing Address:
    Smithsonian Institution
    NMNH MRC 112
    P.O. Box 37012
    Washington, DC  20013-7012
    USA

    Courier Delivery Address:
    Smithsonian Institution
    National Museum of Natural History
    10th and Constitution Ave, NW
    Washington, DC 20560-0112

    Position and Responsibilities:

    I am the Curator of North and South American Paleolithic, Asian Paleolithic and Western United States archaeological collections.  I serve as Director of the Smithsonian’s Paleoindian/Paleoecology Program.  I was the Chairman of the Department of Anthropology from 1992-2000, and am currently the Head of the Division of Archaeology.

    Education and Professional Activities:
    I received a BA from the University of Wyoming and a MA and PhD from the University of New Mexico. I conduct fieldwork and research on Paleoindian archaeology throughout the Americas with special attention to human-environmental interactions and material culture; produce exhibitions and public programs; prepares scholarly and popular publications, and films; serve as advisor for graduate and PhD students and instructs undergraduates, interns, and volunteers in field and laboratory work.

    Major Research Interests:
    My research interests include origins and development of New World Paleo-Indian cultures in relation to changing climate and ecosystems during the terminal Pleistocene, interdisciplinary Quaternary studies, stone tool technology, experimental and public archaeology.  I have conducted field work in Siberia, China, Alaska, the Rocky Mountains, Plains and Southeastern States; I have also worked in Central and South America as well as Southwestern Europe.

    Books:
    1975    Stanford, D.  Walakpa Site Alaska: It’s Place in the Birnirk and Thule Cultures.  Smithsonian  Contributions to Anthropology Number  20. 226 pp.

1980    R. L. Humphrey and D. Stanford, editors, Pre-Llano Cultures of the Americas: Paradoxes and Possibilities. The Anthropological Society of Washington.           

1982    Frison, G., and D. Stanford, editors. The Agate Basin Site A Record of the Paleoindian Occupation of the Northwestern High Plains.  Academic Press.

1992    Stanford, D., and J. Day editors.  Ice Age Hunters of the Rockies.  Denver Museum of Natural History and University Press of Colorado, Boulder.

2005    Bonnichsen, R., M. B. Lepper, D. Stanford and M. Waters, editors.    
Paleo-American Origins: Beyond Clovis.  Texas A & M Press, College Station.

2006    Ubelaker, D.,  B. Smith, D. Stanford, and E. Szathmary, editors.  Environment, Origins, and Population.  Volume 3 of the Handbook of North American Indians. Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.

 Selected Recent Publications:
2000    Stanford, D., and B. Bradley.  The Solutrean Solution.  Scientific American Discovering Archaeology 2:54 – 55

2002    Stanford, D, and B. Bradley.  Ocean Trails and Prairie Paths?  Thoughts about Clovis Origins.  In Nina Jublansky, ed.  The First Americans, pp 255-271.  Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences, No. 27.

2003   Stanford, D.  Mammoth Renderings.  Mammoth Trumpet 18:10-12

2003    Stanford, D. and M. Jodry.  Key Points from Paleo Notes and Collections. In Elizabeth Morris and Barbara Breternitz eds., David Breternitz: Retrospective of a Southwestern Archaeologist, pp. 79-89. Southwestern Lore, 70:3.

2004    Bradley, B., and D. Stanford. The North Atlantic ice-edge Corridor: A possible Paleolithic route to the New World.  World Archaeology, 36:459-478.

2005    Stanford, D., R. Bonnichsen, D. Meggers, D. and D. Gentry. Steele.  Paleoamerican origins: Models, Evidence, and Future Directions.  In R. Bonnichsen, B. Lepper, D. Stanford and M. Waters eds. Paleo-American Origins: Beyond Clovis.  Pp. 313-355. Texas A & M University, College Station

2006    Stanford, D., Introduction: Origins of North American Aborigines.  In Environment, Origins, and Population, pp.16-22 Volume 3 of the Handbook of North American  Indians, edited by D. Ubelaker, B. Smith, D. Stanford, and E. Szathmary.  Smithsonian Institution. Washington DC.

Complete List of Publications:

Films:
1988    The Search for Ancient Americans.  The Infinite Voyage. WQED- National Academy of Sciences.

1997    Ancient Peoples of Colorado.  Margaret Jodry and Ted Timreck, Spofford Films for the Colorado Historical Society.

2000    Mystery of the First Americans.   NOVA.

2001    Who Discovered America?  Planet Science
 
2002    They were here: Ice Age Humans in South Carolina.  South Carolina Educational Television

2004    America BC.  Naked Science-National Geographic Society.

2004    First Americans.  Wall-to-Wall for BBC

2004    America’s Stone Age Explorers.  NOVA

2004    Coming into America.  Alan Alda in Scientific American Frontiers

2005    Ice Age Columbus: Who were the First Americans? Discovery Channel

2008    America 10,000BC.   History Channel

Awards, Honors, Appointments
2008-      NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration, Research Proposal Review Panel

2007-      Lamb Springs Archaeological Preserve, Colorado, Board of Directors

2006-      Hudson-Meng Archaeological Park, Nebraska (USDA_NFS),
Board of Directors

2005-      Visiting Professor, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

2003-      Scientific Advisory Board, Center for the Study of the First             Americans, Texas A&M

1999-      Scientific Advisory Board, George C. Frison  Institute of             Archaeology and Anthropology,  University of Wyoming

1999       Distinguished Service Award, Kokopelli Foundation Board,Museum of the Rockies

1998       Honorary Founding Member of the World Atlatl Association

1997-01  Editorial Advisory Board, American Archeology

1992       C. T. Hurst Award for Outstanding Contributions to Colorado                          Archaeology, Colorado Archeological Society

1992-99  Member Kokopelli Board of Trustees, Museum of the Rockies

1990       Distinguished Alumnus, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Wyoming

1989-00  Research Associate, Denver Museum of Natural History

1989       Visiting Distinguished Professor, Alaskan Quaternary Center,
University of Alaska

1986       Distinguished Alumnus, University of Wyoming

1984-03  Scientific Advisory Board, Center for the Study of the First                           Americans, O.S.U.

1981-84  Advisory Board Institute for Quaternary Sciences, University of Maine

1976-78  Advisory Panel for Anthropology, National Science Foundation

 


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