Provost’s Lecture Series Hosts Anthropologist Joan Richtsmeier

The Provost’s Lecture Series begins its 2021-22 schedule on Monday, Oct.25, with Joan T. Richtsmeier, recipient of Stony Brook University’s 2021 Rohlf Medal for Excellence. The lecture will be held at 4 p.m. in the Charles B. Wang Center, Lecture Hall 2.

Richtsmeier, a distinguished professor in the Department of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University, will present her lecture, “Morphology as Mechanism.” Seating for this lecture is limited and is on a first-come basis. As with all University events, event attendees, including campus visitors, are expected to follow Stony Brook’s visitor policy.

Richtsmeier’s current work joins developmental and evolutionary biology, integrating the study of mouse models carrying known genetic variants with understanding the biological basis of patterns of evolutionary change. Her research combines advances in 3D imaging, developmental biology, and morphometrics to further the understanding of a group of craniofacial disorders known collectively as craniosynostosis, the premature fusion of bones in the skull.

Richtsmeier will talk about our shifting understanding of craniofacial evolution and development in the context of studying disease processes, the people who have influenced her work, and how morphometric methods can be used to identify cellular- or tissue-level contributions to changes in morphology.

The Rohlf Medal was established in 2006 by the family and friends of F. James Rohlf, Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolution and Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University. It is presented every two years to distinguished members of the morphometrics community for their outstanding work on the development of new morphometric methods, or for their applications in the biomedical sciences.

For more information, please email provostlectureseries@stonybrook.edu