Matthew Douglass, an archaeologist in the anthropology department and lecturer with the School of Natural Resources, is in Kenya working as a team member in the Koobi Fora Paleoanthropological Field School. The field school, directed by George Washington University, provides students with a six-week research experience in Sibiloi National Park and the Mpala Research Center. Students from United States and African institutions are paired with archaeologists, geologists, physical anthropologists and paleoecologists working in east Africa. Douglass, with David Braun and Jonathan Reeves (both at George Washington), will incorporate five students into an archaeological survey seeking to address changing patterns of hominid land use in the period between 1.6 and 1.4 million years ago. Using data sources, project members are seeking to understand changes in habitat use during a pivotal time in human evolution marked by changes in stone tool technology (the introduction of the Acheulean handaxe) and the spread of hominids (Homo erectus) outside Africa.
Greg Snow, professor of physics and astronomy, has been elected to a two-year term as chair of the U.S. Compact Muon Solenoid Collaboration Board. The board includes a representative from each of about 50 U.S. institutions that work on the Compact Muon Solenoid, a massive particle detector and corresponding experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. In addition to representing the U.S. group at international meetings of more than 40 countries collaborating on the CMS experiment, Snow will report at various CMS reviews coordinated by the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy.
