FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Daniel Wescott Chosen for 2007 Kerley Award 

February 23, 2007 -- The Ellis R. Kerley Forensic Sciences Foundation today announced the winner of the 2007 Ellis R. Kerley Award.  The $1000 grant was awarded to Daniel Wescott, Ph.D. for his paper entitled: Using Growth Data to Understand Secular Trends in Femur Diaphyseal Size and Shape Among American Adults”. The paper was presented in a symposium at the  59^th annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) in San Antonio Texas.

          Dr. Wescott received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Tennessee in 2001 and is now an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Missouri - Columbia. 

          Dr. Wescott's research focuses on testing methods that can be used to reconstruct demographic information (i.e. age, sex, ancestry, and stature) and behavior (activity) patterns in past and present populations. His winning paper analyzed the secular changes in femur size and shape that have occurred among Americans born in the 1840s to the 1980s and demonstrated how stature, body build, ad physical activity interact during life to establish adult femur morphology. "Ii am honored that I received this award, and the grant money will help in my continued research" says Wescott.

            The award, the seventh issued by the Foundation, was presented during the annual reception given jointly by the foundation and the physical anthropology section of the AAFS.  The award is granted for the paper or poster which best demonstrates originality, creativity, depth of research, innovation, new methodologies, research design, significance to the field, and/or potential impact on the practices of forensic anthropology. 

            The Ellis R. Kerley Forensic Sciences Foundation was started in 2000 in memory of Ellis R. Kerley, forensic anthropologist (1924-1998), to promote the development of forensic anthropology by providing educational opportunities to students through scholarships and encouraging further research from colleagues by providing grants to scientists who make a difference in the field of forensic anthropology. 

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