Richard Smith (professor)

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Richard J. Smith (b. 1948 - ) is a Ralph E. Morrow Distinguished Professor of physical anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis who now serves as Dean of Graduate Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.

[edit] Education

Richard Jay Smith, hailing from New York, spent his undergraduate years at Brooklyn College, earning a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1969. He went on to Tufts University to earn a M.S. in Anatomy as well as a DMD. After Tufts, he studied at Yale University where he earned a masters in philosophy in 1978 and a doctorate in anthropology in 1980. ^[1] His current location is at Washington University in St. Louis.

[edit] At Washington University

Richard Smith joined the faculty at Washington University in 1984 and served as a professor and chair of the Department of Orthodontics, in the former School of Dental Medicine.^[2] He joined the Department of Anthropology in 1991. Among undergraduates, Smith is famous for his course "Introduction in Human Evolution" which has continuously been one of the most popular classes on campus until his appointment as Dean of Arts and Sciences in 2008. The course features topics from the historical development of the theory of evolution, fossil evidence, the morphological features of primates, to the beginnings of modern humans and is noted by many students to be particularly engaging, due in part to Smith's dynamic teaching style. The last class of the course is heavily attended by students, former students, and students who have never taken the course, and is famously known as "Smith's Last Lecture." Every year this lecture typically ends in a standing and resounding ovation.^[3]