{{Short description|American paleontologist (1954–2022)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = William Kimbel | birth_date = April 15, 1954 | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = April 17, 2022 (aged 68) | death_place = Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. | workplaces = Arizona State University | alma_mater = Kent State University | thesis_year = 1986 | academic_advisors = Donald Johanson, Owen Lovejoy (anthropologist)<ref>https://bioanthtree.org/detail/C._Owen_Lovejoy/</ref> | known_for = Hominid evolution | awards = Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005) | spouse = Patricia Sannit | other_names = Bill | fields = Paleoanthropology Paleontology }}
'''William "Bill" Kimbel''' (April 15, 1954 – April 17, 2022)<ref>[https://obituaries.bestfuneralservices.com/william-kimbel/ William Kimbel]</ref> was a paleoanthropologist specializing in Plio-Pleistocene hominid evolution in Africa.<ref>{{Cite web |title=William H. Kimbel {{!}} Media Relations and Strategic Communications |url=https://newsroom.asu.edu/expert/william-h-kimbel |access-date=2022-04-18 |website=newsroom.asu.edu |archive-date=2021-12-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206111801/https://newsroom.asu.edu/expert/william-h-kimbel |url-status=dead }}</ref> He had a multi-decade career at Arizona State University, first as a professor in the Anthropology Department and then as the Director of the Institute of Human Origins and Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.
== Career == Kimbel obtained his PhD from Kent State University, and served as Associate Curator and Head of Physical Anthropology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History from 1981 to 1985.<ref>{{Cite web |title=William Kimbel {{!}} Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA) |url=https://carta.anthropogeny.org/users/william-kimbel |access-date=2022-04-18 |website=carta.anthropogeny.org |language=en}}</ref> In 1985, he began work for the Institute of Human Origins in Berkeley, California, under the leadership of prominent physical anthropologist Donald Johanson, and later had a long career at Arizona State University. There, following Johanson's retirement, he became Director of the relocated Institute of Human Origins and served as Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. He was an editor at the Journal of Human Evolution from 2003 to 2008.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Featured Scientists |url=https://www.pbs.org/your-inner-fish/about/featured-scientists/ |access-date=2022-04-18 |website=Your Inner Fish {{!}} PBS |language=en}}</ref>
Kimbel was well known for leading paleoanthropological fieldwork, including at the Hadar hominin site in the Afar Region, Ethiopia, from which he described many important fossil discoveries. These included one of the earliest specimens of the genus ''Homo''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kimbel |first1=William |last2=Johanson |first2=Donald |last3=Rak |first3=Yoel |date=1997 |title=Systematic assessment of a maxilla of Homo from Hadar, Ethiopia |url=https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199706)103:2<235::AID-AJPA8>3.0.CO;2-S |journal=American Journal of Biological Anthropology |volume=103 |issue=2 |pages=235–262|doi=10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199706)103:2<235::AID-AJPA8>3.0.CO;2-S |pmid=9209580 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> He often encouraged students and early career researchers to join him in the field, and used his experience in the Afar to offer a hands-on educational experience at the Hadar Field School. He also worked on other famous paleoanthropological sites including Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, and Amud Cave, Israel.
== Expertise == Kimbel's expertise centered on hominin evolution in Africa during the Pliocene and Pleistocene.<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Grady |first=Cathleen |date=2015-09-09 |title=Humans aren't so special after all: The fuzzy evolutionary boundaries of Homo sapiens |url=https://arstechnica.com/science/2015/09/humans-arent-so-special-after-all-the-fuzzy-evolutionary-boundaries-of-homo-sapiens/ |access-date=2022-04-18 |website=Ars Technica |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Wilford |first=John Noble |date=2007-09-18 |title=Lost in a Million-Year Gap, Solid Clues to Human Origins |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/science/18evol.html |access-date=2022-04-18 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He published widely on topics including Australopithecus skull morphology and biological systematics.
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrP8nl0gvTA Video from CARTA, recorded in 2016 - William Kimbel: Australopithecus and the Emergence of Earliest Homo]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimbel, William}} Category:1954 births Category:2022 deaths Category:American paleontologists Category:Kent State University alumni Category:Writers from Philadelphia