Evolution and Fossil Record of African Proboscidea

About William J. Sanders

William Joseph Sanders PhD (Bill) attended college at the University of Chicago and earned his PhD in Paleoanthropology from New York University (NYU) in 1995. His doctoral dissertation on the australopithecine vertebral column was recognized for distinction by a Deans Best Science Dissertation Award. At the University of Michigan Bill holds the position of Senior Research Laboratory Specialist and is an Associate Research Scientist in the Museum of Paleontology and Department of Anthropology. His scholarly interests include the taxonomy systematics evolution paleoecology and morphological adaptations of Old World fossil mammals particularly of Afro-Arabian proboscideans and catarrhine primates. Bills research is field- and specimen-based which has led to paleontological and museum work in China Pakistan Turkey the United Arab Emirates the United Kingdom France Belgium Germany and across Africa from Cape to Cairo (South Africa Tanzania Kenya Uganda Ethiopia Democratic Republic of Congo and Egypt). Results of his 40 years of research investigations have been widely published in academic journals and presented at professional venues. In 2010 he co-edited (with Lars Werdelin) the Cenozoic Mammals of Africa (University of California Press) which received a PROSE Award from the American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence Single Volume Reference in Science. In 2017 Bill was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association for Materials and Methods in Paleontology for high standards of professionalism and mentoring of younger colleagues.