April 9, 2001

          Contact: Elizabeth Conlisk (614) 292-3040

Star anthropologist joins Ohio State faculty

Among his many responsibilities, professor will chair department

Clark Spencer Larsen, the Amos Hawley Distinguished Term Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will join The Ohio State University’s Department of Anthropology as Distinguished Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences and department chair.  Larsen’s tenure as department chair will begin July 1, 2001, and run through June 30, 2005.

In announcing the appointment today (4/6), Randall Ripley, dean of Ohio State’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, said he is pleased to welcome Larsen to the anthropology faculty.

“Clark Larsen is an outstanding scholar and internationally important physical anthropologist,” Ripley said.  “His move to Ohio State will immediately give a boost to the growing reputation of Ohio State’s Department of Anthropology.”

“As chairperson of the department, Larsen will work with his colleagues, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and others throughout the university to continue to enhance the exciting and innovative nature of the teaching and research that takes place in the department,” Ripley continued.

Larsen will take over as chair after long-time Professor and Chair Frank E. Poirier retires from the university at the end of spring quarter.  Poirier’s tenure as chair began in 1992.

Larsen is a world-renowned authority on bioarchaeology, the study of human remains from archaeological settings.  His research is primarily focused on biocultural adaptation in the last 10,000 years of human evolution, with particular emphasis on the history of health and well-being in both native and non-native populations in the Western Hemisphere. 

Larsen received his B.A. in anthropology from Kansas State University in 1974 and his M.A. and Ph.D. in biological anthropology from the University of Michigan.  He has taught at the University of Massachusetts, Northern Illinois University and Purdue University. 

            Larsen currently has an appointment as research associate in the Research Laboratories of Archaeology at the University of North Carolina and in the Department of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History.  He also is an adjunct professor of biological anthropology and anatomy at Duke University. 

            Larsen served as president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists from 1999 to 2001.  In July 2001, he will begin serving as the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.  Larsen also is a regular consultant for various private and government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Interior and General Services Administration.