Dietrich StoutProfessor

• PhD, Indiana University, 2003

Specializations

• Evolution of brain and cognition
• Paleolithic archaeology
• Lithic technology
• Experimental archaeology
• Cognitive neuroscience

Research Projects and Collaborations

Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project, Afar, Ethiopia. Led by Dr. Sileshi Semaw of the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre laEvolución Humana in Burgos, Spain. Multidisciplinary investigations of fossil and artifact bearing deposits dating from the Miocene to Middle Pleistocene, including the earliest known stone tools in the world.

Foundations of learning: individual variation, plasticity, and evolution. In collaboration with Erin Hecht (Harvard), William Hopkins (University of Texas), and Chet Sherwood (George Washington University). This project is using a cross-disciplinary, comparative, integrative approach to examine how individual variation in brain anatomy influences learning trajectories in the context of real-world, evolutionarily relevant skills. The Paleolithic Technology Lab at Emory is contributing to work comparing individual variation in chimpanzee and bonobo brain anatomy to differences in learning trajectories in simple stone tool knapping and nut cracking.