as an epigrapher on an archaeological project at the site of Caracol, Belize, and served as director on a project mapping the Dos Pilas site in the Petexbatun region, Pasión River, Guatemala, spending several months at a time in fieldwork for these positions. The work at Dos Pilas was expanded into his dissertation, The Inscriptions and Monumental Art of Dos Pilas, Guatemala: A Study of Classic Maya History and Politics.'' Before joining the Brown University faculty, Houston held the Jesse Knight chair at Brigham Young University. In 2008 the MacArthur Foundation named Professor Houston as a MacArthur Fellow and recipient of a 'genius' award. On 21 July 2011 Houston was awarded the Order of the Quetzal by the president of Guatemala in recognition of his contributions to the study of Maya culture and for promoting knowledge of ancient Mayan culture in the English speaking world. In 2018, he was appointed by the Library of Congress as the inaugural Jay I. Kislak Chair for the study of the history and cultures of the early Americas at the John W. Kluge Center. He is married to Nancy Dayton Houston and they have two children. Notes References Mayanists American Mesoamericanists Mesoamerican epigraphers Mesoamerican anthropologists Mesoamerican archaeologists 20th-century Mesoamericanists 21st-century Mesoamericanists Brown University faculty Brigham Young University faculty Yale University alumni 1958 births Living people People from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania alumni MacArthur Fellows Order of the Quetzal