jmonge@sas.upenn.edu Acting Curator, Physical Anthropology; Keeper of Physical Anthropology; Associate Director, Casting Program, University of Pennsylvania Museum; Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
Janet Monge has undertaken fieldwork in many locations in Europe, Kenya and Australia. Her primary research interests are in human evolution, skeletal biology, growth and development as applied to extinct members of our evolutionary lineage. Beyond these research foci, she maintains a dedication to the preservation of museum collections and has developed methodologies to preserve and broadcast datasets to the physical anthropology community using Computed Tomography (CT scans), traditional radiology, and human dental micro-anatomy as well as in the distribution of the highest quality castings of human fossils to Universities and Museums all over the world. An example of this work is The Radiographic Atlas of the Krapina Neandertals.
It is her plan to develop a “virtual museum” of skeletal collections so that researchers from all around the world can use these CT scans of the Penn Museum collection as part of their own research design. As of June 2007, over 3,000 skeletal materials have been scanned and entered into this database. This work is funded by the National Science Foundation (along with P.Thomas Schoenemann, a Research Associate at the Penn Museum). In her own work, results of this endeavor have been presented at several professional meetings. Her own research interest in the project stems from the use of the scans for comparative purposes to the study of Human Evolution, specifically in the understanding of the cranial-facial morphology and dentition of Neandertals.
As co-curator, with Dr. Alan Mann (Princeton University and Curator Emeritus of the Physical Anthropology Section, Penn Museum), of the Museum's forthcoming traveling exhibition, "Surviving: The Body of Evidence," one of the most ambitious exhibit projects ever developed at the Penn Museum. The exhibition is scheduled to premiere at the Penn Museum in 2008, before traveling to several sites nationally. This exhibit is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
She continues as Associate Director of the Casting Program (non-profit small business venture, world-wide sales distribution to museums and universities for research and teaching) that
stores over 3000 molds and casts representing every phase of human evolution. Visit the WebSite for the Casting Program at: www.pennfossilcasting.com
With American Section Curator (and former Museum director) Dr. Jeremy Sabloff, she has received a prestigious National Science Foundation grant (REU - Research Experience for Undergraduates) to work with Native American college students on collections here at the Penn Museum. The grant extended from the Spring 2005 to 2007 and with the hope of future funding, working along with Dr. Timothy Powell, the Director of the Native American Studies Center, and Dr. Robert Preucel (Curator, American Section).
Dr. Theodore G. Schurr
Consulting Curator, Physical Anthropology & American Sections; Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
Specialties/Interests: Subject Areas: molecular anthropology, modern human evolution, human biological variation, biomedical genetics, ancient DNA.
Geographic Areas: Siberia, Americas, Southeast Asia, South and Central Asia, Australia, Melanesia, Africa.
Current/Past Research:
As Director of Penn's Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology, Dr. Schurr and his colleagues work on a wide variety of projects. Through the Baikal Archaeology Project, he and his colleagues were able to genetically characterize Neolithic populations (3000-9000 ybp) from the Cis-Baikal region, and develop a more nuanced view of the prehistory of Siberia. They also analyzed the genetic diversity of Melanesian populations, and elaborated the colonization history of that region relative to Australia and Papua New Guinea. In addition, the team completed anaylsis of mtDNA variation in indigenous Altaians and Altaian Kazakhs to elucidate the prehistory of South-Central Siberia. They will continue genetic studies of both Alatain and Slavic populations, focusing on Y-chromosome and autosomal variation. Related work with Old Believer and ethnic Russian populations from Siberia are helping them to clarify aspects of Slavic and Russian history.
Dr. Schurr was recently appointed Director of the North American Regional Center for the Genographic Project, an ambitious initiative to collect and analyze over 100,000 DNA samples from indigenous populations worldwide. This project, which seeks to trace migration patterns of the world's peoples from their African origins some 60,000 years ago, involves ten global centers, and is funded by the National Geographic Society, IBM and the Waitt Foundation Family. Over the next five (or more) years, Dr. Schurr's team hopes to work with a number of indigenous communities across North America.
In addition to this work, Dr. Schurr's lab is also engaged a several new projects. These include a population history study in Afghanistan with colleagues from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UK, and a genetic epidemiology project with collaborators in Argentina. In addition, the team will continue their study of mitochondrial diseases in Russia and the Ukraine with physicians and researchers in those countries, and extend their analysis of prostate cancer in African and African-American men with researchers at Penn.
1. Mooder KA, Schurr TG, Bamforth F, Bazaliiskii V (2003) Mitochondrial DNA and archeology: The genetic characterisation of prehistoric Siberian hunter-gatherers. In: McKenzie H, Weber A (eds) Prehistoric Foragers of the Cis-Baikal, Siberia: Proceedings from the First Conference of the Baikal Archaeology Project, Canadian Circumpolar Institute: Edmonton, pp. 187-196.
2. Schurr TG (2003) Molecular genetic diversity of Siberian populations: Implications for ancient DNA studies of archeological populations from the Cis-Baikal region. In: McKenzie H, Weber A (eds) Prehistoric Foragers of the Cis-Baikal, Siberia: Proceedings from the First Conference of the Baikal Archaeology Project, Canadian Circumpolar Institute: Edmonton, pp. 153-186.
3. Schurr TG, Wallace DC (2003) Genetic prehistory of Paleoasiatic-speaking peoples of northeastern Siberia and their links to Native American populations. In: Kendall L, Krupnik I (eds) Constructing Cultures Then and Now: Celebrating Franz Boas and the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Smithsonian Institution Press: Baltimore, pp. 239-258.
4. Rubicz R, Schurr TG, Babb P, Crawford MH (2003) Mitochondrial DNA diversity in modern Aleuts, and their genetic relationship with other circumarctic populations. Hum. Biol. 75(6):809-35.
5. Schurr TG, Sherry ST (2004) Mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome diversity and the peopling of the Americas. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 16(4):420-39.
6. Thornton CP, Schurr TG (2004) Genes, language, and culture: An example from the Tarim Basin. Oxford J. Archeol. 23(1):83-106.
7. Iovita RP, Schurr TG (2004) Reconstructing the origins and migrations of diasporic populations: The case of the European Gypsies. Am. Anthropol. 106(2):267-81.
8. Schurr TG (2004) An anthropological genetic view of the peopling of the Americas. In: Clark GA, Barton CM, Yesner D, Pearson G (eds) The Settlement of the American Continents: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Human Biogeography , Arizona State University Press: Tucson, pp. 11-27.
9. Schurr TG (2004) The peopling of the New World: Perspectives from molecular anthropology. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 33(3):551-83.
10. Mooder KP, Schurr TG, Bamforth FJ, Bazaliiskii V (2004) Population affinities of Neolithic Siberians: A snapshot from prehistoric Lake Baikal. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. (Accepted).
Dr. Janet Monge
Dr. Theodore G. Schurr