Blaire Van Valkenburgh
{{short description|American paleontologist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Blaire Van Valkenburgh
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1952|10|13}}
| birth_place = Washington, D.C.
| citizenship = United States
| fields = Vertebrate Paleontology, Paleobiology, Paleoecology
| workplaces = University of California Los Angeles (1986-Present)
| education = Ph.D.
| alma_mater = {{unbulleted list|
| doctoral_advisor = Robert Bakker
| known_for = quantitative analysis of ecological guild structure in fossil carnivores
| awards = {{unbulleted list|
| President, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 2008-2010
| Joseph T. Gregory Award, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 2018{{Cite web |url=http://vertpaleo.org/Annual-Meeting/Annual-Meeting-Home/SVP-2018-program-book-V4-FINAL-with-covers-9-24-18.aspx |title=Archived copy |access-date=2018-10-21 |archive-date=2018-10-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022033509/http://vertpaleo.org/Annual-Meeting/Annual-Meeting-Home/SVP-2018-program-book-V4-FINAL-with-covers-9-24-18.aspx |url-status=dead }}
| Romer-Simpson Medal, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 2021{{Cite web|url=https://vertpaleo.org/past-award-winners-and-grant-recipients/|title = Past Award Winners and Grant Recipients}}}}
| website = http://www.eeb.ucla.edu/indivfaculty.php?FacultyKey=1620
}}
Blaire Van Valkenburgh is an American paleontologist and holds the Donald R. Dickey Chair in Vertebrate Biology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California Los Angeles. She is a former president of Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Early life and education
Van Valkenburgh was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. Her mother, Lois Van Valkenburgh, was a civil rights activist. From 1964 to 1970, she attended T. C. Williams High School.{{Cite web|last=Van Valkenburgh|first=Blaire|date=|title=Public Comments for Virtual School Board Meetings #120|url=https://esbpublic.acps.k12.va.us/attachments/244a8018-7410-4762-a407-5e0522854d06.pdf|access-date=|website=}}{{Cite web|date=2020-11-20|title=Activist, Aide Lois Van Valkenburgh Dies - The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/12/30/activist-aide-lois-van-valkenburgh-dies/d5f342ed-5d88-4282-be14-05ee36e1a1aa/|access-date=2020-11-21|website=archive.vn|archive-date=2020-11-20|archive-url=https://archive.today/20201120224607/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/12/30/activist-aide-lois-van-valkenburgh-dies/d5f342ed-5d88-4282-be14-05ee36e1a1aa/|url-status=live}}
Van Valkenburgh received a bachelor's degree from Stockton State College in New Jersey in 1974, a Ph.D. in Vertebrate Paleobiology from Johns Hopkins University in 1984, where she worked with Robert Bakker,{{cite book |last1=Van Valkenburgh |first1=Blaire |title=A Morphological Analysis of Ecological Separation Within Past And Present Predator Guilds (Carnivore, Competition) |date=1984 |publisher=PhD Dissertation, Johns Hopkins University |location=Baltimore Maryland |pages=1–286 |id={{ProQuest|303319590}} }} after which she worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Alan Walker at Johns Hopkins{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=Alan |last2=Shipman |first2=Pat |title=The Ape in the Tree: an Intellectual and Natural History of Proconsul |date=2005 |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-674-01675-0 |pages=1–291 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DauBuaRsJl0C}} before moving to UCLA in 1986.{{cite web |last1=Van Valkenburgh |first1=Blaire |title=Curriculum Vitae |url=https://www.eeb.ucla.edu/Faculty/VanValkenburgh/BVV_CV_2018_Prof7.pdf |publisher=UCLA |access-date=22 Jul 2018}}
Career
Van Valkenburgh is a paleontologist and holds the Donald R. Dickey Chair in Vertebrate Biology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California Los Angeles.{{cite web|title=Van Valkenburgh, Blaire|url=https://www.eeb.ucla.edu/indivfaculty.php?FacultyKey=1620|access-date=22 July 2018|publisher=UCLA}}{{cite web|last1=Hoffman|first1=Haley|title=Blaire Van Valkenburgh to deliver lecture as part of Phi Beta Kappa's Visiting Scholars program|date=23 September 2015|url=https://www.centre.edu/blaire-van-valkenburg-deliver-lecture-part-phi-beta-kappas-visiting-scholars-program/|access-date=23 July 2018|publisher=Center College, Danville, Kentucky|archive-date=6 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806095259/https://www.centre.edu/blaire-van-valkenburg-deliver-lecture-part-phi-beta-kappas-visiting-scholars-program/|url-status=dead}} She has served as chair of the department and as associate dean of academic programs in the life sciences at UCLA.The focus of her research is the paleobiology and paleoecology of Carnivora.{{cite web|last1=Bates-Duke|first1=Karl|title=Math proves ancient cats could hunt mammoths|url=https://www.futurity.org/math-hypercarnivores-pleistocene-1036332/|access-date=23 July 2018|website=Futurity|date=28 October 2015}}{{cite web|title=Blaire Van Valkenburgh: Staring down the saber-tooths|url=https://trowelblazers.com/blaire-van-valkenburgh/|access-date=23 Jul 2018|website=TrowelBlazers|date=9 May 2014 }} Her contributions include quantification of guild structure in fossil carnivore communities and the study of iterative evolution in carnivore feeding adaptations.{{cite journal|last1=Van Valkenburgh|first1=Blaire|date=2016|title=The impact of large terrestrial carnivores on Pleistocene ecosystems|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=113|issue=4|pages=862–867|doi=10.1073/pnas.1502554112|pmc=4743832|pmid=26504224|bibcode=2016PNAS..113..862V|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|last1=Van Valkenburgh|first1=Blaire|date=2007|title=Déjà vu: the evolution of feeding morphologies in the Carnivora|url=https://www.futurity.org/math-hypercarnivores-pleistocene-1036332/|journal=Integrative and Comparative Biology|volume=47|issue=1|pages=147–163|doi=10.1093/icb/icm016|pmid=21672827|doi-access=free}}
Van Valkenburgh served as president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology from 2008 to 2010{{cite web |title=Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Past Presidents |url=http://vertpaleo.org/the-Society/Leadership/SVP_Past_Presidents.aspx |publisher=Society of Vertebrate Paleontology |access-date=22 July 2018 |archive-date=7 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607194232/http://vertpaleo.org/The-Society/Leadership/SVP_Past_Presidents.aspx |url-status=dead }} and as associate editor of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology from 2011 to 2017.
References
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Category:American paleontologists
Category:American women paleontologists
Category:20th-century American women scientists
Category:21st-century American women scientists
Category:Scientists from Virginia
Category:Scientists from Washington, D.C.
Category:Scientists from Alexandria, Virginia
Category:Stockton University alumni
Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni
Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty
Category:T. C. Williams High School alumni
Category:Presidents of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology