research, and the taxonomy of the genus Homo. In addition, he is a primary describer of many hominid fossil remains. Since 1976 Wolpoff has graduated more than 20 PhD students. Multiregional evolution and the punctuated equilibrium theory Drawing on this background and research experience, Wolpoff's continuing research in the last 15 years has been the development, articulation, and defense of his multiregional model of human evolution. He suggests that after an African origin of Homo sapiens (including Homo ergaster/Homo erectus) and the subsequent migration of H. erectus throughout much of the globe (Africa, Europe, Asia), local evolutionary events took place, and when they were advantageous, they spread everywhere else. According to Wolpoff, populations of Homo evolved together as a single species. Change in Pleistocene populations did not involve speciation (the splitting of one species into two): all this time, the geographically distinct populations maintained small amounts of gene flow. This idea directly challenges the Out of Africa model, which claims Homo sapiens evolved recently as a new species in Africa, and then dispersed throughout the Old World, replacing the existing human populations without mixing with them. His theory evoked rivalry with the proponents of punctuated equilibrium, Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge, who endorsed H. erectus as a model of their theory. In an earlier example of punctuated evolution preceding the global diffusion of Homo sapiens genes from Africa, some two million years ago, Wolpoff points to evidence of an earlier 'genetic revolution' that took place in a small group isolated from australopithecine forebears. "The earliest H. sapiens remains differ significantly from australopithecines in both size and anatomical details," he notes, "Insofar as we can tell, these changes were sudden and not gradual." Awards and honours Wolpoff is a member of many anthropological organizations, and is an Honorary Life Member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (in 2001) and Fellow of the American Anthropological Association. Some notable awards are LS&A Excellence in Education Award in 1998 W.W. Howells Book Prize in Biological Anthropology, presented by the Biological Anthropology Section of the American Anthropological Association in 1999 Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger Award at the Krapina 1899–1999 Conference, presented by the Croatian Natural History Museum Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer of 2001–2004 Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in 2011 Media Books and monographs 1971 Metric Trends