William "Bill" Kimbel (April 15, 1954 – April 17, 2022) was a renowned paleoanthropologist specializing in

Plio-Pleistocene The Plio-Pleistocene is an informally described geological pseudo-period, which begins about 5 million years ago (Mya) and, drawing forward, combines the time ranges of the formally defined Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs—marking from about 5&nb ...

hominid evolution in Africa. He had a multi-decade career at Arizona State University, first as a professor in the Anthropology Department and then as the Director of the

Institute of Human Origins The Institute of Human Origins (IHO) is a non-profit, multidisciplinary research organization dedicated to the recovery and analysis of the fossil evidence for human evolution. It was founded by the team of paleoanthropologists that discovered Luc ...

and Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.

Career

Kimbel obtained his PhD from

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in ...

, and served as Associate Curator and Head of Physical Anthropology at the

Cleveland Museum of Natural History The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum located approximately five miles (8 km) east of downtown Cleveland, Ohio in University Circle, a 550-acre (220 ha) concentration of educational, cultural and medical instit ...

from 1981-1985. In 1985, he began work for the Institute of Human Origins in Berkeley, California, under the leadership of prominent physical anthropologist

Donald Johanson Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943) is an American paleoanthropologist. He is known for discovering, with Yves Coppens and Maurice Taieb, the fossil of a female hominin australopithecine known as "Lucy" in the Afar Triangle region of Hada ...

, and later had a long career at Arizona State University. There, following Johanson's retirement, he became Director of the relocated Institute of Human Origins and served as Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment in the

School of Human Evolution and Social Change The Industrial Arts Building on the Arizona State University campus in Tempe, Arizona, later known as the Anthropology Building and now known as the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, was built in 1914. It was listed on the National Regi ...

. He was an editor at the

Journal of Human Evolution The ''Journal of Human Evolution'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that concentrates on publishing the highest quality papers covering all aspects of human evolution. JHE was established in 1972 and is published by Elsevier. The Edi ...

from 2003-2008. Kimbel was well-known for leading paleoanthropological fieldwork, including at the Hadar hominin site in the

Afar Region The Afar Region (; aa, Qafar Rakaakayak; am, አፋር ክልል), formerly known as Region 2, is a regional state in northeastern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Afar people. Its capital is the planned city of Semera, which lies on the pave ...

, Ethiopia, from which he described many important fossil discoveries. These included one of the earliest specimens of the genus ''

Homo ''Homo'' () is the genus that emerged in the (otherwise extinct) genus '' Australopithecus'' that encompasses the extant species ''Homo sapiens'' ( modern humans), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely relat ...

''. He often encouraged students and early career researchers to join him in the field, and used his experience in the Afar to offer a hands-on educational experience at the Hadar Field School. He also worked on other famous paleoanthropological sites including

Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human evolution. A steep-si ...

, Tanzania, and

Amud Cave Amud Cave is located in the Upper Galilee, in the Nahal Amud gorge. It is situated about above Nahal Amud, right next to and above the famous pillar (amud, in Hebrew) for which Nahal Amud is named. The cave was excavated by a Japanese expediti ...

, Israel.

Expertise

Kimbel's expertise centered on

hominin The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos) and in standard usage excludes the genus ''Gorilla'' (gorillas). The ...

evolution in Africa during the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

. He published widely on topics including

Australopithecus ''Australopithecus'' (, ; ) is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genus ''Homo'' (which includes modern humans) emerged within ''Australopithecus'', as sister to e.g. ''Austral ...

skull morphology and biological systematics.

References

External links

Video from CARTA, recorded in 2016 - William Kimbel: Australopithecus and the Emergence of Earliest Homo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimbel, William 1954 births 2022 deaths American paleontologists Kent State University alumni Writers from Philadelphia