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.”

The author of numerous publications, Smith has also served as an advisor for exhibits mounted by the Field Museum in Chicago and the McClung Museum in Knoxville, Tennessee. He holds a PhD from the University of Michigan and was formerly a member of the faculty at the University of Tennessee and Northern Illinois University. He currently serves as President of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the largest professional organization for biological anthropologists in the world. “The department did a superb job of attracting a major scholar and teacher to ISU,” said Dean Olson. “He will bring fresh vision to the department at this key moment in its history.” Professor Smith added, “Coming to ISU is a real honor for me. The Department of Sociology and Anthropology is made up of an impressive group of excellent scholars who also go the extra mile for their students. I am really looking forward to being a part of this culture of balanced excellence.”