Rick Potts

Paleoanthropologist Dr. Rick Potts heads the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. In partnership with the Kenya Museums, Potts leads ongoing excavations in southern and western Kenya. His research focuses on how environmental instability has affected human evolution and our evolutionary adaptations. He is the curator of the Smithsonian’s "Hall of Human Origins" and the traveling exhibit “Exploring Human Origins.” He also authored the exhibit companion book What Does It Mean To Be Human?