Duke's most decorated scientist-explorer, primatologist Elwyn Simons, will be honored at a Sept. 16-17, 2005, conference commemorating his life and work, on the occasion of his 75th birthday.
Simons, who is James B. Duke Professor of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, is renowned for more than four decades of expeditions in which he discovered many new primate species. Such studies revealed unprecedented detail about the era marking the evolution of the first anthropoid ancestor of monkeys, apes and humans. Independently or with coauthors he has published over 320 papers and books. Currently he is working on several papers about new discoveries in Egypt, and a book-length memoir of his life in science.
The conference will take place beginning at 9:00 a.m., Friday, September 16 in the Durham Hilton Hotel. It will feature more than a dozen talks by some of Simons' many former students. Also featured will be talks by Simons and colleagues on their expeditions and research findings. Registration fee is $75, and further information can be obtained at on the conference web site.
Simons has led more than 90 expeditions, including sites as far flung as Wyoming,
India, Iran, Nepal and Madagascar. But he is best known for his treks to the Fayum region in Egypt. It was in this modern desert landscape -- a tree-filled swamp in ancient times - where Simons and his colleagues unearthed some of the earliest anthropoid ancestors as well as the oldest forerunners of bushbabies.
Also, his studies with a group of colleagues of more recent "sub-fossils" of ancient lemurs gathered on expeditions to caves in Madagascar, has greatly expanded understanding of the lifestyles of exotic giant lemurs that became extinct less than a thousand years ago.
Such fossils and subfossils enabled the Duke fossil collection -- with approximately 22,000 fossil vertebrates -- to become one of the world's leading collections of its kind. Simons said that the overseas field work in Egypt and Madagascar, recovering fossils, is too important for a slowdown, and he will continue actively in the field. He holds current contracts for the next few years in both countries.
For his achievements, Simons has received numerous honors. In 1981, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, considered the highest honor afforded an American researcher. In 1994, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, founded by Benjamin Franklin. He also has received numerous awards from the Egyptian government, including the 2001 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Geological Survey and Mining Authority of Egypt. In 1998 he was elected "Knight of the National Order" by the government of Madagascar. And in 2000 he was named recipient of the Charles R. Darwin Award of the American Association of Physical Anthropology.
Simons received a Bachelor's degree from Rice University in 1953, an M.A.
and Ph.D. from Princeton University, a D.Phil. and a D.Sc. from Oxford and an honorary M.A. from Yale University.
He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale. He came to Duke in 1977, has served as Director of the Duke University Primate Center and is currently head of the Division of Fossil Primates.
Simons is married to Friderun Ankel Simons, a distinguished primatologist in her own right. They have two children, Cornelia Seiffert of Oxford, England, and Verne Simons of Athens, Ohio. His son from a first marriage, D. Brenton Simons, lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
Major funding for the conference is provided by a gift from the Getty Foundation. Additional funding is provided by gifts from Herbert Simons, John and Freddie Oakley, Sarah and Dan Hrdy, and by anonymous donors.