Curriculum Vitae

Education

2004	Ph.D. in Anthropology, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, U.S.A. Thesis: Paleoanthropological implications of vegetation and wild plant resources in modern savanna landscapes, with applications to Plio-Pleistocene Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
1992	B.A. in Anthropology, Stanford University, U.S.A.

Academic Positions

2010 - present	Associated Scientist of the Dept. of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
2008 - present	Assistant Professor Adjunct, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado at Boulder
2007 - 2009	Post-Doctoral Researcher, Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
2006 - 2007	Post-Doc, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado at Boulder with M. Sponheimer. Investigating early hominin land-use in the Sterkfontein Valley, South Africa, using strontium isotopes.
2002 - 2005	Graduate Research Assistant, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico. Archaeology lab director.

Teaching

2000	Instructor, Introduction to Human Evolution, Rutgers University (1 semester)
1999 - 2000	Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Human Evolution, Rutgers University (2 semesters)
1996	Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Archaeology, Rutgers University

Field Experience

2006 - 2010	Collecting environmental (plants, rocks, soils, fauna) and fossil samples in Sterkfontein Valley, South Africa.
2002 - 2005	Archaeological excavations at Pueblo sites in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
2003	Modern vegetation pilot study for reconstructing the paleoenvironment at the 3-million-year-old, fossil-bearing cave Makapansgat, South Africa.
1997 - 1998	Modern vegetation studies in Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Lake Manyara, Tanzania, for reconstruction of Olduvai Gorge paleoenvironment.
1994 - 1997	Excavation of 1.8 million-year-old deposits at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, with the Olduvai Landscape Paleoanthropology Project, Rutgers University.
1997	Ecological field school in Costa Rica, Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS).
1992 - 1993	Archaeological excavations in Central California and human osteological analysis of >100 prehistoric burials.
1991	Koobi Fora Field School , Kenya

Professional Conference Presentations

2008. Copeland, S.R., Sponheimer, M., Lee-Thorp, J.A., de Ruiter, D., Le Roux, P., Grimes, V., Codron, D., Codron, J., Richards, M. Strontium isotope ratios in environmental samples, modern animals, and fossils from the Sterkfontein Valley, South Africa. Strontium Isotope Workshop, Boulder, Colorado, September 2008.

2008. Grimes, V., Copeland, S.R., Sponheimer, M., le Roux, P., Lee-Thorp, J., de Ruiter, D. and Richards, M. Strontium isotope ratios of modern and fossil teeth measured by solution and laser ablation PIMMS. International Symposium on Biomolecular Archaeology, York, U.K. September 2008.

2008. Grimes, V., Copeland, S.R., Sponheimer, M., le Roux, P., Lee-Thorp, J., de Ruiter, D. and Richards, M. Strontium isotope ratios of modern and fossil teeth measured by solution and laser ablation PIMMS. European 9th Workshop on Laser Ablation, Prague, July 2008.

2008. Copeland, S.R., J.A. Lee-Thorp, M. Sponheimer, D. de Ruiter, P. Le Roux, V. Grimes, D. Codron, J. Codron, M. Richards. New strontium isotope evidence for hominin residence and ranging in the Sterkfontein Valley, South Africa. Paleoanthropology Society, Vancouver, BC, March 2008.

2008. Copeland, S.R., M. Sponheimer, J.A. Lee-Thorp, V. Grimes, M. Richards. Strontium isotope ratios across a South African landscape: a basis for interpreting hominin land-use. Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, BC, March 2008.

2008. Sponheimer, M., Lee-Thorp, J.A., Copeland, S.R. Oxygen isotopes and landscape use in Africa. Society for American Archaeology conference, Vancouver, March 2008.

2007. S.R. Copeland, V. Grimes, M. Sponheimer, D.J. de Ruiter, J. Lee-Thorp, P. Le Roux, M. Richards. Strontium isotope ratios of bedrock, soils, plants, and animals in Sterkfontein Valley, South Africa. August 30, 2007. UK Archaeological Sciences Meeting, Cambridge, U.K.

2007. S.R. Copeland, Habitats and wild resources for early hominins, chimpanzees, and baboons. Palaeoanthropology meets Primatology Meeting, Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Cambridge University, U.K., April 17-19, 2007.

2006. Chair of session: General Topics in Paleoanthropology. Copeland, S.R. Plant foods in “arid” versus “moist” savannas, and the relevance of chimpanzees as ecological models for early hominins. Society for American Archaeology, San Juan, Puerto Rico, April 2006.

2003. Copeland, S.R. Relating vegetation structure to hominid plant resource availability based on an actualistic study in modern East African savannas. Paleoanthropology Society, Tempe, AZ, April 2003.

2000. Co-chair of session: Research in Paleoethnobotany.

2000. Copeland, S.R. Modern analog perspectives on vegetation structure and resources in the Early Pleistocene Olduvai Basin. Society for American Archaeology, Philadelphia, April 2000.

1999. Copeland, S.R. Establishing resolution in paleohabitat reconstructions with relevance to hominid adaptations. American Society of Physical Anthropologists, Columbus, Ohio, April 1999.

1998. Deocampo, D.M., G.M. Ashley, & S.R. Copeland. Springs and streams in an East African closed basin: controls on biological communities in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. Geological Society of America, Toronto, November 1998.