Anna Curtenius Roosevelt, 2003 Women of Discovery Humanity Award

"Be true to yourself, be persistent and flexible, laugh, learn from others, share information with others. Never give in to fear." — Anna Curtenius Roosevelt

Archaeologist and professor

Born: 1946-01-01

Hometown: Evanston, IL

Education: PhD in Anthropology

Achievements

Discoveries: Early projectile points in the Cavern of the Painted Rock, Brazil

Expeditions: Venezuela, Brazil, Central African Republic, Peru

Biography

Dr. Anna C. Roosevelt is an anthropologist interested in human ecology and evolution.  She earned her B.A. degree in History from Stanford University in 1968, and her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia in 1977. She has authored numerous books, monographs, and scientific articles on archaeological topics, and serves on various editorial boards including Latin American Antiquity. Dr. Roosevelt's research focuses on the changing relationship of humans and their environments. Since 1983, she has conducted a research project in the Brazilian Amazon, where she is perhaps best known for her discoveries at Pedra Pintada, a site first occupied 11,000 years ago by some of the earliest Americans. Professor Roosevelt specializes in two main geographic areas, the Middle Amazon and the Congo Basin. In the Amazon, she works at multiple sites, including those in Paraguay and Brazil. Her Congo Basin research is in Bayanga in the southwestern Central African Republic, and in the western Democratic Republic of the Congo. For 25 years, she has studied long-term human-environmental interaction in the tropics with funding from National Science Foundation, National Endowment for Humanities, Fulbright Commission, Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the University of Illinois. Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Royal Geographical Society, she was awarded a 5-year MacArthur Fellowship for her interdisciplinary research. She holds the Explorers Medal, Society of Women Geographers' Gold Medal, Order of Rio Branco and Bettendorf medals (Brazil), and honorary doctorates from Mt. Holyoke and Northeastern University, Boston.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: My 1971 Pentax camera

Heroes: My great aunt, Ethel R. Derby