The National Science Foundation, Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Rebecca Ferrell as Program Director for Biological Anthropology. Dr. Ferrell joins NSF on detail from the National Institute on Aging at NIH.

After receipt of her doctorate in Biological Anthropology from The Pennsylvania State University she served on the faculty at Howard University and then joined NIA in 2009.  There she has served as a Scientific Review Officer in the Division of Extramural Activities.  As SRO, she helped to craft the Funding Opportunity in Biodemography.   Dr. Ferrell has broad  research interests that include stress, mortality and human and non-human primate life histories.  Her research interests include such topics as enamel microstructure and female reproductive biology and reproductive aging.

In addition to her appointment at NSF, Dr. Ferrell is currently a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

Dr. Ferrell succeeds Dr. Carolyn Ehardt who has returned to her position at the University of Texas, San Antonio – and who we thank for three years of excellence as Program Director.

Dr. Ferrell can be contacted at [email protected] and 703-292-7850.