Awards

Faculty Awards | Graduate Student Awards | Undergraduate Student Awards

2009 C. B. Moore Award for Excellence Awarded to Victor Thompson

Dr. Victor Thompson of the Department of Anthropology is the 2009 recipient of one of archaeology's most prestigious professional recognitions, the C. B. Moore Award for Excellence. Given annually by the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, the award recognizes the outstanding research achievements of an early career archaeologist working in the American Southeast.

Mark Moritz Awarded CAREER Award

Mark Moritz has been awarded a five-year, $530,738 Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) award for his research proposal, "Pastoral Management of Open Access: The Emergence of a Complex Adaptive System." The CAREER award is the NSF's most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholar through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.

Jeffrey K. McKee Elected as 2008 AAAS Fellow

Department of Anthropology Professor Jeffrey K. McKee has been elected a 2008 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The election of McKee and other AAAS Fellows was announced in the December 19^th issue of Science. The AAAS, the premier scientific society in the United States, is honoring Dr. McKee for “distinguished contributions to paleoanthropology, evolutionary biology, and science education.” McKee, a native Ohioan, earned a Bachelors degree from Miami University, and an MA and PhD from Washington University in St. Louis. Before joining the OSU faculty in 1996, McKee spent a decade as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anatomy of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, where he is still an Honorary Research Associate. Read more (doc)

Clark Spencer Larsen receives the American Association of Physical Anthropologists' (AAPA) Gabriel W. Lasker Distinguished Service Award

Clark Spencer Larsen, chair and professor of the Department of Anthropology, is the recipient of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists' (AAPA) Gabriel W. Lasker Distinguished Service Award for outstanding service to the field of anthropology and to the AAPA.

2009-2010 Critical Difference for Women Professional Development Grant to Lesley Gregorika

(11/16/09) Ph.D. candidate Lesley Gregoricka has been awarded the Critical Difference for Women Professional Development Grant. This grant facilitates the professional development and career mobility of female graduate students at The Ohio State University by funding participation in and presentations at professional conferences as well as graduate research. Lesley received this grant to present a paper entitled "The daily grind: osteoarthritis and activity patterns associated with grain preparation in Early Bronze Age Jordan" at the 2010 American Association of Physical Anthropologists meeting in Albuquerque.

2009-2010 Critical Difference for Women Professional Development Grant to Sarah Martin

(11/16/09) Ph.D. candidate Sarah Martin has been awarded the Critical Difference for Women Professional Development Grant. This grant facilitates the professional development and career mobility of female graduate students at The Ohio State University by funding participation in and presentations at professional conferences as well as graduate research. Sarah will be conducting research on the Tappen Collection at the University of Minnesota as part of her larger dissertation project entitled "The influence of ontogenetic processes on sex and species differences in fluctuating asymmetry levels of primate canines."

Amanda Agnew Receives Poster Presentation Award

(5/27/09) Mandy Agnew received the Margaret H. Hines Award for best poster presentation (http://ibrl.osu.edu/4704.cfm) for her poster titled "The relationship between microstructure and material properties of pediatric ribs" at the Injury Biomechanics Symposium held in Columbus last week. She was also notified that she is being awarded two National Science Foundation grants which she is a co-investigator on with colleagues from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. These two projects are also focused on pediatric bone research and are titled "A novel approach to develop age-equivalent models for pediatric long bones " and "Structural and material characteristics of the pediatric thoracic cage and their relationship to age related changes in thoracic response."

Bernardo Rios Receives Graduate Research Assistantship

(5/19/09) The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences awarded the AGEP/SBES/NSF Graduate Research Assistantship for the summer quarter, 2009 to Bernardo Rios.

Lesley Gregoricka Receives Royal Anthropological Institute Ruggles-Gates Biological Anthropology Grant

(5/19/09) Lesley Gregoricka, Ph.D. student in Anthropology, was awarded a Royal Anthropological Institute (United Kingdom) Ruggles-Gates Biological Anthropology Grant for the support of dissertation research on migration in archaeological contexts in United Arab Emirates. The support funds much of her research involving stable isotope analysis.

Hedy Justus Awarded Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command Forensic Academy Fellowship

(5/18/09) Ph.D. student, Hedy Justus, has received a fellowship to attend the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC) Forensic Academy for the autumn quarter. For 4 months, she will train with forensic anthropologists at the US Army Central Identification Laboratory at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii, in addition to participating in an archaeological recovery in SE Asia. She is only one of five to receive the award.

Catherine Cook, Ph.D. Student Receives International Primatological Society grant

(5/18/09) Catherine Cooke, Ph.D. student in Anthropology, received a grant from the International Primatological Society for her dissertation field research in Gabon

Four Anthropology Graduate Students Receive the American Association of Physical Anthropologists William S. Pollitzer Student Travel Award in 2009

(5/15/09) The American Association of Physical Anthropologists have awarded four William S. Pollitzer Student Travel Awards to Ohio State Graduate Students, including Leslie Williams, Lesley Gregoricka, Tracey McKinney, and Britney Kyle. This is the largest number of awards granted to any single institution in 2009. The awards help to fund travel to the annual meeting of the AAPA.

Six Anthropology Graduate Students awarded Research and Scholarship grants

(5/14/09) Sarah Martin, Lesley Gregoricka, Marnie Shaffer, Mandy Agnew, Dan Tyree, and Heather Jarrell were awarded Graduate School Alumni Grants for Graduate Research and Scholarship. The funding goes towards the support of their dissertation research.

Sarah Martin Awarded Dissertation Grant from Critical Difference for Women Professional Development Grant

(5/7/09) Sarah Martin, Anthropology Ph.D. student, has been awarded a grant from the Critical Difference for Women Professional Development Grant program for the support of her dissertation research, "The Influence of Ontogenetic Processes on Sex and Species Differences in Fluctuating Asymmetry Levels of Primate Canines."

Amanda Agnew, Ph.D. Student Receives Eisenhower Grant for Research Fellowship

(5/6/08) Amanda Agnew has received the 2009 Eisenhower Grant for Research Fellowship. This prestigious fellowship is for her dissertation research, "Determining Mechanical Properties of Human Pediatric Ribs," and is awarded under the U.S. Department of Transportation's Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program for outstanding doctoral research.

Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award for 2008-2009

(5/5/09) On behalf of the Department of Anthropology Awards Committee, I am thrilled to let you know that the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award in Anthropology for 2008-2009 is Jennifer Spence. This award recognizes the teaching excellence and contributions to the teaching mission of the Department of Anthropology. The award also acknowledges the importance of graduate teaching in the life of the Department. Congratulations, Jennifer, for this important accomplishment!

Amy Hubbard, Ph.D. Student, Awarded Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Grant

(5/1/09) Amy Hubbard has been awarded a Wenner-Gren grant for the support of her dissertation research. The project, "A re-examination of biodistance analysis using dental and genetic data" is for 6 months (2009-2010) in two areas of Kenya's coastal province. She will collect dental impressions and buccal swabs in order to independently reconstruct population structure among these "modern" communities and, later, compared to determine how well genetic and dental trait data are "correlated." She will be working on a second collaborative project with a local geneticist (Kem Githui) and periodontologist (Evelyn Wagaiyu) from Nairobi examining differences in genetic susceptibility to periodontitis and presenting our research/ running seminars in Mombasa and Nairobi.

Six Anthropology Graduate Students Receive Office of International Affairs Travel Grants

(4/29/09) Six graduate students received OIA dissertation research travel grants. Five of these are for fieldwork--one each to Laurie Reitsema for her work in Poland, Marianne Shaffer for her work in South Africa, Lesley Gregoricka for her work in the United Arab Emirates, Julia Giblin for her work in Hungary, and Hedy Justus for her work in Poland. The sixth grant is an OIA Phyllis Krumm Scholarship (for students working in China or Europe) to Joyce Chan for her work in China. Congratulations, and best of luck to all in their research!

Britney Kyle, doctoral student in anthropology, awarded Fulbright Grant

(4/29/09) Britney Kyle was awarded a U.S. Student Fulbright Grant for Educational and Cultural Exchange for her doctoral dissertation in Albania. She will be collecting data for the period of October 2009 through June 2010, looking at the impact of Greek colonization on a population from the site of Apollonia. She hopes to develop a better understanding of the impact of colonization on health, activity, and lifestyle in a little known region conquered by Greece in ancient times.

Two Anthropology Graduate Students win best poster award

(4/7/09) Hedy Justus and Mandy Agnew received Best Student Poster at the annual Paleopathology Association meetings held in Chicago for their poster "Limited Perimortem Evidence of Interpersonal Violence in Early Medieval Poland."

Julia Giblin awarded a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant

(3/31/09) Julia Giblin was awarded a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation for her project, "Isotope Analysis on the Great Hungarian Plain: AN Exploration of Mobility and Subsistence Strategies from the Neolithic to the Copper Age."

Gayatri Thampy awarded Research Fellowship

(1/5/09) Gayatri Thampy was awarded a research fellowship from the Smithsonian Institute's Tropical Research Insititute for her disseration research on land use and land reforms in Panama.

Laurie Reitsema Receives Her Second FLAS Award

Congratulations to Laurie Reitsema for receiving her second FLAS (Foreign Language Area Studies) award for summer study of Polish at the University of Krakow. She is learning the language in order to help her with her dissertation research on medieval period skeletons from Poland.

Amy Hubbard, Doctoral Student in Anthropology, Awarded Fulbright-Hays Grant

Amy Hubbard has been awarded a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Award for her dissertation research project, "The Origin and Development of Regional Trading Networks along Kenya's coast: A Re-examination of Biodistance Methods." She will be in the field (Kenya) for a period six months collecting data in various locations. Congratulations, Amy!

Sigma Xi Award to Ph.D. Students

The Spring competition for Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research awards saw funding for four Anthropology Ph.D. students. This is an unprecedented level of success with this agency for Ohio State. Kudos go to:

-Rachel Balabuszko for "A quantitative analysis differentiating human from nonhuman fragmented skeletal remains"
-Nidia Merino Chavez for "Mexicanidad in Ohio: identity and stress in Columbus"
-Lesley Gregoricka for "An isotopic investigation of mobility, exchange, and tomb membership in a Bronze and Iron age Arabian world-system" and
-Britney Kyle for "Reconstructing health and activity at Apollonia, Albania: Impacts of Greek colonization"

Anthropology Students Present Posters at the annual Denman Undergraduate Research Extravaganza

(5/14/09) The following Anthropology Students presented posters at the Denman Undergraduate Research Extravaganza on 5/13/09:

1. Klaree Boose: "Interventions into Aggressive and Affiliative Behavior by Captive Bonobos," Advisors: Dawn Kitchen, Scott McGraw
2. Emily Coate: "Interpreting the Household at a Fort Ancient Site in Dayton, Ohio," Advisor: Rob Cook
3. Amy Eakins: "Effects of Size and Preproductive Status on Substrate use in Howler Monkeys," Advisor: Scott McGraw
4. Todd Juran, eric Soma, Leah Taylor: "A Study of Grazing Intensity of Cattle in Northern Cameroon," Advisor: Mark Moritz
5. Danetta Richards: "Influences on Mayan Women's Work in Guatemala," Advisor: Jeff Cohen
6. Kristen Ritchey: "Hired Herding in Northern Cameroon: Motivations and Sustainability," Advisor: Mark Moritz

Fulbright Award to Graduating Senior, Matthew Borths

The Department of Anthropology congratulates Matthew Borths, a graduating senior who double-majored in Anthropological Sciences and Geological Science, for his Fulbright Award for the 2008/2009 academic year. He will be spending the next year in Germany doing research at the University of Bonn. Matthew will work with Dr. Thomas Martin, a mammalian paleontologist, studying Mesozoic mammalian evolution, focusing on the role of early mammals in Jurassic and Cretaceous ecosystems. In many ways his research in Germany will be an extension of his undergraduate research, advised by OSU professor John Hunter, on mammalian diversity during the end-Cretaceous mass-extinction (the one that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago). After a year in Germany, Matt is headed to the Department of Anatomical Sciences at SUNY-Stony Brook to work with David Krause and Erik Seiffert on mammal evolution in Africa.