Blaire Van Valkenburgh

Blaire Van Valkenburgh is an American paleontologist and holds the Donald R. Dickey Chair in Vertebrate Biology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California Los Angeles. She is a former president of Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Blaire Van Valkenburgh
Born (1952-10-13) October 13, 1952[1]
Washington, D.C.[2]
CitizenshipUnited States
EducationPh.D.
Alma mater
Known forquantitative analysis of ecological guild structure in fossil carnivores
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsVertebrate Paleontology, Paleobiology, Paleoecology
InstitutionsUniversity of California Los Angeles (1986-Present)
Thesis (1984[2])
Doctoral advisorRobert Bakker[2]
Websitehttp://www.eeb.ucla.edu/indivfaculty.php?FacultyKey=1620

Early life and education

Van Valkenburgh was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. Her mother, Lois Van Valkenburgh, was a civil rights activist. From 1964 to 1970, she attended T. C. Williams High School.[4][5]

Van Valkenburgh received a bachelor's degree from Stockton State College in New Jersey in 1974,[1] a Ph.D. in Vertebrate Paleobiology from Johns Hopkins University in 1984, where she worked with Robert Bakker,[1] after which she worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Alan Walker at Johns Hopkins[6] before moving to UCLA in 1986.[2]

Career

Van Valkenburgh is a paleontologist and holds the Donald R. Dickey Chair in Vertebrate Biology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California Los Angeles.[7][8] She has served as chair of the department and as associate dean of academic programs in the life sciences at UCLA.The focus of her research is the paleobiology and paleoecology of Carnivora.[9][10] Her contributions include quantification of guild structure in fossil carnivore communities and the study of iterative evolution in carnivore feeding adaptations.[11][12]

Van Valkenburgh served as president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology from 2008 to 2010[13] and as associate editor of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology from 2011 to 2017.[2]

References
  1. Van Valkenburgh, Blaire (1984). A Morphological Analysis of Ecological Separation Within Past And Present Predator Guilds (Carnivore, Competition). Baltimore Maryland: PhD Dissertation, Johns Hopkins University. pp. 1–286. ProQuest 303319590.
  2. Van Valkenburgh, Blaire. "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). UCLA. Retrieved 22 Jul 2018.
  3. http://vertpaleo.org/Annual-Meeting/Annual-Meeting-Home/SVP-2018-program-book-V4-FINAL-with-covers-9-24-18.aspx
  4. Van Valkenburgh, Blaire. "Public Comments for Virtual School Board Meetings #120" (PDF).
  5. "Activist, Aide Lois Van Valkenburgh Dies - The Washington Post". archive.vn. 2020-11-20. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  6. Walker, Alan; Shipman, Pat (2005). The Ape in the Tree: an Intellectual and Natural History of Proconsul. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University. pp. 1–291. ISBN 978-0-674-01675-0.
  7. "Van Valkenburgh, Blaire". UCLA. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  8. Hoffman, Haley. "Blaire Van Valkenburgh to deliver lecture as part of Phi Beta Kappa's Visiting Scholars program". Center College, Danville, Kentucky. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  9. Bates-Duke, Karl. "Math proves ancient cats could hunt mammoths". Futurity. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  10. "Blaire Van Valkenburgh: Staring down the saber-tooths". TrowelBlazers. TrowelBlazers. Retrieved 23 Jul 2018.
  11. Van Valkenburgh, Blaire (2016). "The impact of large terrestrial carnivores on Pleistocene ecosystems". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113 (4): 862–867. doi:10.1073/pnas.1502554112. PMC 4743832. PMID 26504224.
  12. Van Valkenburgh, Blaire (2007). "Déjà vu: the evolution of feeding morphologies in the Carnivora". Integrative and Comparative Biology. 47 (1): 147–163. doi:10.1093/icb/icm016. PMID 21672827.
  13. "Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Past Presidents". Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
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