Dean Falk (PhD, Michigan, 1976). Primate and human brain evolution, neuroanatomy, osteology.

My research focuses on early hominids, brain evolution, comparative neuroanatomy, and cognitive evolution (including language origins). Part of my research is based on data that have been collected from primate skeletal material and endocranial casts in African, European and American museums.
I am also fortunate to be a member of the Institute of Human Biology at the University of Vienna, where I collaborate with Professor Horst Seidler and colleagues in the application of medical imaging to the study of middle Pleistocene hominids. Research on cranial blood flow and australopithecine endocasts has led me to develop the 'radiator theory' of brain evolution, and to question the conventional interpretations of certain fossils such as the early hominid known as "Lucy."

• Braindance. Henry Holt and Company (1992).
• Brain Evolution in Homo: The "Radiator" Theory (target article). Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13:333-344 (1990).
• Human Cortical Asymmetries Determined With 3D MR Technology. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 39:185-191 (with C. Hildebolt, J. Cheverud, L. Kohn, G. Figiel and M. Vannier) (1991).
• Earliest Homo Debate. Nature 358:289-290 (with E. Baker) (1992).
• Siedler, H., Falk, D., Stringer, C., Wilfing, H., zur Nedden, D., Weber, G., Recheis, W., and J.L. Arsuaga. (1997) A comparative study of stereolithographically modelled skulls of Petralona and Borken Hill: Implications for future studies of middle Pleistocene hominid evolution. Journal of Human Evolution, in press.

E-mail address: Dean.Falk@albany.edu