Past Features

February 20, 2007 (Vol. 5, No. 2)

Anthropology Professor Eric Delson
'Helps Out' at NSF Budget Open House

Eric Delson shows several visitors small models of skulls and bones for comaprison with virtual fossils on the computer screen.
Eric Delson, chair of Lehman College's Anthropology Department (left), shows several visitors small models of skulls and bones for comparison with 'virtual fossils' on the computer screen. (Photo courtesy of Curt Suplee, National Science Foundation)
Anthropology Professor Eric Delson was one of fifteen scholars invited to present their research at the National Science Foundation (NSF) 2008 Budget Open House and Exhibition, held on February 5 in Arlington, Va. Professor Delson presented the work done on the visual reconstruction of hypothetical common ancestors among the primate (monkey and human) evolutionary trees. That research has been conducted in collaboration with Mathematics & Computer Science Professor Katherine St. John

Working with the NYCEP Morphometrics Group (NMG), an association of researchers who share an interest in analyzing morphological evolution of primates, Professor Delson used computer visualizations of bone shapes to demonstrate the relationships among different primate species and individuals.

Other presenters at the Open House were from Rutgers University, the University of Pennsylvania, Purdue University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and other institutions. For more information about the exhibition or about the NSF, go to www.nsf.gov.