Ian Tattersall

Ian Tattersall, a Curator Emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, is a paleoanthropologist and primate biologist of long experience. He has conducted fieldwork in places as diverse as Yemen, Vietnam, and Madagascar; and, besides being a prolific contributor to the technical literature, he has curated exhibits and written widely for the public on topics ranging from the natural history of wine, beer and spirits to the evolution of humankind and the origin of our unique human consciousness. His critically acclaimed popular books have been translated into a dozen languages, and include most recently "Understanding Race" and "Distilled: A Natural History of Spirits" (both with his colleague Rob De Salle), and "Understanding Human Evolution."