Fred Smith

After an extensive national search, the College has appointed Professor Fred Smith as the new chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Smith, who assumes the post on July 1, is currently chair of the Department of Anthropology at Loyola University in Chicago, where he has also served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. His major fields of interest are paleoanthropology, primate evolution, human osteology and functional anatomy, Paleolithic archaeology, Europe, and Africa. He has conducted field work throughout Europe, Western Asia, east Africa and South Africa, but he has concentrated most of his efforts in central Europe. Smith has been a National Academy of Sciences exchange scholar in Yugoslavia and the Czech Republic, an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in Germany, and a Fulbright Scholar in Croatia. He has also been a visiting professor at the Universities of Hamburg and Tuebingen in Germany and Zagreb in Croatia. “The faculty and staff are delighted that Professor Smith will join the department,” said Diane Zosky, Interim Chair. “He brings a healthy balance of excellent teaching, distinguished research, and seasoned administrative talent.”

Northern Lights

The mysterious and beautiful Northern Lights are the subject of the new Illinois State University Planetarium show, "Aurora," running weekends February 8 through May 10. The visually stunning program investigates the mysterious aurora that has fascinated and frightened the inhabitants of northern lands throughout the ages. “The northern lights are an awe-inspiring sight,” said Thomas Willmitch, director of the Planetarium. “Yet it is only occasionally that we get to glimpse this incredible spectacle from central Illinois. This show is everyone's opportunity to see the northern lights as perhaps never before.”