Walter Hartwig
Encyclopedia
Walter Hartwig is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 anthropologist, paleontologist, anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

 professor and author in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

. He is currently Dean of Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine (CA).

Walter Hartwig was born in 1964 to Carl Bennett Hartwig, a master sergeant from the Colorado high plains, and Mildred Cattaneo, last child of an immigrant Lombardian Italian coal-mining family in western Pennsylvania. He took his primary and secondary education in Indiana, Kentucky, Colorado and Tennessee. After beginning his college career in mathematics at Carnegie-Mellon University, he finished undergraduate training summa cum laude in anthropology at the University of Missouri
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...

 in 1986. Hartwig undertook graduate work in biological anthropology under the late Francis Clark Howell
Francis Clark Howell
Francis Clark Howell, generally known as F. Clark Howell was an American anthropologist. He altered the landscape of his discipline irrevocably by adding a broad spectrum of modern sciences to the traditional "stones and bones" approach of the past and is considered the father of modern...

 at the University of California at Berkeley in 1986, where he developed an interest in South American monkeys.

Academic career

Fieldwork in Colombia introduced Hartwig to Alfred L. Rosenberger, who soon became a mentor and colleague with whom he continues to collaborate. Hartwig’s early publications emerged from their shared interest in the fossil record of South American monkeys, of which Hartwig is now an international authority.

Hartwig turned to comparative cranial anatomy for his dissertation research, conducted at the Field Museum of Natural History
Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as the Museum Campus Chicago...

 in Chicago. This led to later publications on the relationship of brain development to face development. During his research time in Chicago Hartwig taught for the University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop...

, Loyola University
Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago is a private Jesuit research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1870 under the title St...

, and Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

 – Northwest. After obtaining his PhD from UC-Berkeley in 1993 he moved to Washington, DC, to further his collaborations with Rosenberger, who at that time was a senior postdoctoral fellow at the National Zoo.

Later that year Hartwig accepted a two-year postdoctoral research and teaching position in the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University. He had the opportunity there to work closely with John Fleagle, whose broad vision of primate evolution has been a significant influence in Hartwig’s writings. He moved back to Washington, DC, in 1995 as a Visiting Lecturer for George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...

, and then returned to Berkeley in 1996 as a Lecturer in anthropology. In 1997 what is now the Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine opened in San Francisco and Hartwig joined the founding faculty as an anatomist. He served as Chair of Basic Sciences from 2003–2009, and currently is full professor and Assistant Dean of Clinical Education.

Research

Hartwig’s early research in the primate fossil record led to field projects in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and Tanzania. Together with eminent Brazilian paleontologist Castor Cartelle he published and named the first evidence of extinct "mega-monkeys", two species that were more than twice the size of any living South American monkeys. In 2002 Hartwig edited a critically acclaimed reference volume, The Primate Fossil Recordhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0521081416 for Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...

. To date Hartwig has authored three books, and published research in 14 different peer-reviewed journals and nine books across primatology, evolution, education and the history of science. After several years of developing a gross anatomy curriculum in his medical school professorship, Hartwig published a textbook in 2007. Following his medical school administration service he published a guide to medical school admissions and curriculum in 2009. His interests in scientific credibility have led to an appearance on the Today Show
Today (Australian TV program)
Today and Weekend Today are Australian breakfast television programmes, the show is often referred to as The Today Show. The show has been broadcast live by the Nine Network each morning since 1982...

, and testimony in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia.

Awards and recognition

Hartwig’s research has been funded through grants from the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...

, the Louis S.B. Leakey Foundation, and the Explorers Club. He has received study fellowships from the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...

, Robert H. Lowie Fellowship, Sigma Xi
Sigma Xi
Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society is a non-profit honor society which was founded in 1886 at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a handful of graduate students. Members elect others on the basis of their research achievements or potential...

, and the Thomas J. Dee Foundation.

In 2008 Hartwig became the subject of a Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

fan site – Walter Hartwig, The Man, The Myth, The Legendhttp://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=32128181861.

Jeopardy

Hartwig appeared on Jeopardy on September 20, 2000. After leading going into Final Jeopardy, Hartwig answered the question incorrectly and finished in 2nd place, winning a trip to South Carolina.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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