Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny

The Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA)^[1] is an Organized Research Unit (ORU) at the University of California, San Diego. Formally established in 2008, CARTA is a collaboration between faculty members of UCSD main campus, the UCSD School of Medicine, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and interested scientists at other institutions from around the world.

CARTA was formed in order to promote transdisciplinary research into Anthropogeny - the study of human origins, drawing on methods from a number of traditional disciplines spanning the humanities, social, biomedical, biological, computational & engineering and physical & chemical sciences.

Contents 1 History of CARTA 2 Areas of Interest 3 Organization and Leadership 4 References

History of CARTA

Before CARTA became an established and formal UCSD recognized Organized Research Unit, a multidisciplinary effort to study human origins had already been underway in the La Jolla area for over a decade, coordinated by the UCSD Project for Explaining the Origin of Humans (POH). The group involved local experts in San Diego as well as many others throughout the world. The primary activity of the group was to organize multi-disciplinary interactions amongst members (via meetings in La Jolla), and via secure internet-based mechanisms. These efforts have now been converted into a larger and more publicly active research program, which facilitate graduate and postgraduate education in relevant departments and programs. An educational curriculum is needed to equip the next generation of scholars who will formulate and address questions concerning the origins of humanity that we are, at present, only beginning to envision.

Areas of Interest

• Human and Primate Genetics and Evolution
• Paleoanthropology and Hominid Origins
• Mammalian and Primate Neuroscience
• Primate Biology and Medicine
• Language, Communication, and Cognition
• Nature-Nurture Interactions in Explaining Language and Cognition
• Human and Primate Society and Culture
• Comparative Developmental Biology of Primates
• General Theories for Explaining Humans

Organization and Leadership

Co-Directors:

• Ajit Varki, Professor of Medicine and Cellular & Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego
• Margaret Schoeninger, Professor and former Chair of the Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego
• Fred Gage, Professor, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and Adjunct Professor of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego

Associate Director:

• Pascal Gagneux, Associate Professor of Cellular & Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego

Management Services Officer:

• Linda Nelson

Community Relations Director:

• Ingrid Benirschke-Perkins

Internal Advisors:

• Kurt Benirschke, Professor Emeritus of Pathology and Reproductive Medicine, University of California, San Diego
• James Moore, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego
• David Perlmutter, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of California, San Diego

External Advisors:

• Francisco J. Ayala, University Professor and Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine
• Derek Denton, Founding Director Howard Florey Institute, University of Melbourne
• Kristen Hawkes, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, University of Utah
• Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of California, Davis
• Jon Kaas, Centennial Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
• Tetsuro Matsuzawa, Professor and Director, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan
• Svante Pääbo, Co-Director, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
• Bernard Wood, University Professor of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University

Major Supporters:

• The G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation
• Annette Merle-Smith

References