Daniel L. Gebo
An anthropologist and paleontologist, Dan Gebo is recognized as a world expert on the anatomy and evolution of monkeys, apes, humans and lower primates.
He joined the NIU faculty in 1987 and now holds a joint appointment in anthropology and biological sciences. Gebo also serves as a research associate at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. NIU previously recognized his expertise in both the classroom and field with the Presidential Teaching Professorship (2008) and the Presidential Research Professorship (1998).
Throughout his career, Gebo’s work has captured mainstream-press headlines, including in 2000 when he led a research team that discovered the fossils of 45-million-year-old, thumb-length primates. The find made the front page of the New York Times, Washington Post and newspapers worldwide. He is currently working in northern China on a quest to illuminate primate origins dating back 60 million years.
Gebo also has conducted fieldwork in Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Mali, Madagascar, the Philippines, Uganda and the United States. He has won more than a dozen grant awards, made more than 25 presentations in national and international venues and authored or co-authored more than 60 publications in top-tier professional journals, including Nature and Science.
At NIU, Gebo helped create an important avenue of research for students when, a decade ago, he proposed a concept that became USOAR – for Undergraduate Special Opportunities in Artistry and Research. The program has provided more than 100 undergraduates from all disciplines with funding for research in this country and abroad, including in China, Peru, Ireland and Cuba.
“By inspiring this program, Dr. Gebo has touched the very heart of the Board of Trustees Professorship,” said Christopher McCord, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Gebo has taught a wide variety of courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, touching the lives of nearly 6,000 students. He has supervised or been a committee member on 45 master's-level theses and four dissertations.
“Science is about ideas,” Gebo said. “As a physical anthropologist, I try to challenge students to learn more, appreciate important facts, consider strength of evidence and most importantly to think critically about the ideas scientists create from this background of evidence.”
