Frank B. Livingstone: Introduction

Frank B. Livingstone, Professor Emeritus of Biological Anthropology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, was born in Winchester, MA, on December 8, 1928, an origin that still faintly accents his speech even after half a century in the Midwest. Frank earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Harvard University in 1950, followed by master's (1955) and doctoral (1957) degrees in Anthropology awarded by the University of Michigan. In addition to his career-long service as a faculty member at this same institution, including a stint as departmental chair, Frank advised the Human Genetics Section of the World Health Organization and was a research associate of the Liberian Institute of Tropical Medicine. In recognition of his groundbreaking research on sickle cell anemia, Frank received the Martin Luther King Award from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The American Association of Physical Anthropology (AAPA) bestowed its highest honor on Frank, The Charles R. Darwin Award for Lifetime Achievement, in 1999. Frank continues to live in Ann Arbor with his wife, Carol, visited frequently by his daughter, Amy, her husband, and two grandsons. There are still a lot of dogs, cats, and the occasional skunk at the back door.

Frank's exemplary achievements in research and teaching were heralded at an honorary symposium at the April 2002 meeting of the AAPA in Buffalo, NY. This special issue of Human Biology comprises those presentations. Livingstone was commended for his conceptual and quantitative rigor, his willingness to challenge the status quo when the data and evolutionary theory warrant it, and his capacity to elicit, without rancor or disrespect, an energy and rigor similar to his own from his colleagues and students. Ample evidence of Frank's lasting intellectual contributions to the field can be found in journals, citation indices, and the warm appreciation of an audience overflowing the conference hall.

For the many reasons eloquently expressed at the symposium and in this volume, I share with others the sense that being Frank's student was a privilege. But as one of his very few women students, my appreciation for Frank's tutelage is even richer. That there were so few women graduate students in biological anthropology speaks to the culture, the times, and a host of other nebulous factors. But to Frank, it wasn't the chromosomes you carried that mattered but what you THOUGHT about chromosomes and genes and variation and evolution. Frank disliked intellectual laziness, but it never occurred to him that it was sex-linked. Frank expected from me, as he did from everyone else, that I should disagree with him ... and I had better do it well! No doubt that training has made me bolder than I might have been. Thank goodness. Thank Frank.