Dr. Smith is an archaeologist whose work with Portland State University focuses on the archaeology of the Lower Columbia River Region, where he has excavated since 1991. He has research interests in biological and cultural evolutionary dynamics, foraging culture, the anthropology of mobility, the evolution of behaviorally-modern cognition and a variety of regional topics including the pre-Columbian Northern Andean region. He has published widely in journals of physical anthropology, archaeology, world prehistory and evolution. His books include undergraduate texts such as the forthcoming Atlas of Human Prehistory and the popular science titles The Fact of Evolution and The Top Ten Myths About Evolution. Dr. Smith also works on the anthropology of space exploration and settlement, discussed for the general public in Scientific American magazine and in his book Emigrating Beyond Earth: Human Adaptation and Space Colonization (Springer 2012), and in technical publications in journals including the International Academy of Astronautics' Acta Astronautica. In this work, Dr. Smith has advised NASA managers, consulted with the SpaceX corporation, spoken at Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and he is currently writing a graduate-level text, Principles of Space Anthropology (Springer 2017), for space settlement planners. Dr Smith will begin a new field research project in SE Oregon in Summer 2016, continuing his long-term collaboration with the US Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Dr. Smith is an archaeologist whose work with Portland State University focuses on the archaeology of the Lower Columbia River Region, where he has excavated since 1991. He has research interests in biological and cultural evolutionary dynamics, foraging culture, the anthropology of mobility, the evolution of behaviorally-modern cognition and a variety of regional topics including the pre-Columbian Northern Andean region. He has published widely in journals of physical anthropology, archaeology, world prehistory and evolution. His books include undergraduate texts such as the forthcoming Atlas of Human Prehistory and the popular science titles The Fact of Evolution and The Top Ten Myths About Evolution. Dr. Smith also works on the anthropology of space exploration and settlement, discussed for the general public in Scientific American magazine and in his book Emigrating Beyond Earth: Human Adaptation and Space Colonization (Springer 2012), and in technical publications in journals including the International Academy of Astronautics' Acta Astronautica. In this work, Dr. Smith has advised NASA managers, consulted with the SpaceX corporation, spoken at Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and he is currently writing a graduate-level text, Principles of Space Anthropology (Springer 2017), for space settlement planners. Dr Smith will begin a new field research project in SE Oregon in Summer 2016, continuing his long-term collaboration with the US Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Positions
Present
Adjunct Faculty,
Portland State University
‐
Anthropology