Kathy Schick

Schick was born to a middle class family. Her father was an engraver, who inspired Schick for her interest in crafts and tools as a child. Years after her father’s passing at the age of 10, she began studying paleoanthropology in college, focusing on the study of the human brain’s evolution in relation to culture.[13]

Schick received her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Kent State University in 1974, where she graduated magna cum laude.[14] Schick, at the end of her education, in 1978, had got special training in Flintknapping at the Lithic Technology Fieldschool in Washington State University.[14][15] After graduating, she became one of the supervisors for the “Ohio dig” during her master’s program at Kent State University.[13] Before attending UC Berkeley, Schick had attended University of Illinois, Chicago in 1980 for training in Lithic Microwear Analysis.[2] She then went on to apply to UC Berkeley to pursue her doctorate’s degree in 1980, which was also the where she met her eventual husband, Nicholas Toth, who she married in 1976.[13] She received a PhD in Anthropology, human evolutionary studies, Paleolithic archaeology, and African Prehistory from UC Berkeley.[14] During these years, Schick trained for scanning electron microscopy at Cambridge University in 1983.[14] After spending a few years at UC Berkeley as a postdoc, she joined Indiana University, Bloomington in 1986.[13] Schick’s primary research interest in the importance of technology in relation to evolution became clear in 1988 when she began constructing plans for the establishment of the Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology (CRAFT).[13]

After completing her graduate degree at UC Berkeley, Schick was affiliated with their Institute of Human Origins, as a postdoctoral researcher from 1982 until 1986.[13] During this period, she worked alongside the institute’s founder, Donald Johanson, who was known for discovering the early hominid fossil named “Lucy”.[13] Schick began her career as a visiting professor at the University of Capetown’s Archaeology Department in 1985 and UC Berkley’s Anthropology Department in 1986, specifically within their Old World Lithics Laboratory.[2] Schick’s professional affiliation with Indiana University, Bloomington dates back to 1986, where she began teaching as a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.[2] A year later, she became the co-director of the university’s Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology(CRAFT) alongside her husband, Nicholas Toth.[2] Since 2000, Schick has held a position at the Stone Age Institute as an executive board member and secretary, and later became the co-director of the institute in 2003.[2][14] In addition, she teaches Anthropology and is a professor in the departments of Biology and Geological Sciences and also co-directs the university’s Human Evolutionary Studies Program.[14]

Schick has travelled to many countries around the world as a part of her fieldwork in anthropology. Her travel experiences have allowed her to closely study various cultures, physical traits of individuals in the region, languages, and prehistory through archaeology. She has analyzed early tools in different regions through excavations and studying how they were developed and used by humans who lived in the Stone Age era. Her fieldwork also entails the study of human fossil ancestors through excavations and subsequent laboratory analyses.[16] Specifically, her research focuses on paleoanthropology, the study of human evolution, which is interconnected with the work of physical anthropologists, archaeologists, and other individuals in related specialized fields.[17]

Schick has participated in fieldwork relating to her areas of interest across the world for decades. She has observed archaeological sites and lithic collections in Oldowan and Acheulean sites such as Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia, Gona and Middle Awash in Ethiopia, Nihewan Basin in China, Lake Natron in Tanzania, Ambrona in Spain, and Koobi Fora in Kenya.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

Research of the Acheulean

Types of acheulean

Schick has investigated the acheulean since the beginning of her anthropological and educational career. Schick started her research of the acheulean during her years at UC Berkeley. In 1981 and 1983, under the supervision of Clark Howell and Lesile Freeman, she participated in a study where they analyzed and researched the acheulean found in the Ambrona Spain.[2] After finishing her research in Spain in 1982, she took part in another acheulean analysis in East Africa with Glynn Isaac.[2] She then traveled back to Spain for another project, which was directed by Clark Howell, in the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid, Spain.[2] In 1992, Schick released her article “Geoarchaeological Analysis of an Acheulean Site at Kalambo Falls, Zambia” where she dived into the different types of acheulean found on site in Zambia and analyzed them to explain the environment that led to the formation of these tools.[19] In 1997, she took part in the Middle Awash Project.[2] Together with J.Desmond Clark, she contributed to many research papers pertaining to the Middle Awash Project, such as the  “Overview and Conclusion on the Middle Awash Acheulean”, “Archaeology of the Western Middle Awash.”, and “Archaeology of the Eastern Middle Awash.” in 2000 and  “Biface Technological Development and Variability in the Acheulean Industrial Complex in the “Middle Awash Region of the Afar Rift, Ethiopia.” in 2003.[2] In 2007, with her husband, Schick wrote another paper on the industrialization of acheulean in Middle Awash called the “Acheulean Industries of the Lower and Middle Pleistocene, Middle Awash, Ethiopia”.[2] In 2006-Schick, Nicholas Toth, and Dietrich Stout- published their article to the Stone Age Institute on the process and development of acheulean tools, such as the Oldowan, and studied these tools development to the function of the human brain.[2][20] Afterwards in 2007, Schick and Toth investigated the emergence of acheulean and the social and environmental behaviors that lead to the adaptation of this stone into a tool across the course of human evolution.[9] They used various acheulean tools in different sizes in diverse locations with specific human evolution times to determine the use of these tools.[9]  

1986 - Stone Age Sites in the Making: Experiments in the Formation and Transformation of Archaeological Occurrences[2][25]

1993 -  Making Silent Stones Speak: Human evolution and the dawn of technology, co-authored with her husband, Nicholas Toth.[2][25]

2000 -  The Acheulean and the Pilo-Pleistocene Deposits of the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia, co-authored with Jean de Heinzelin, J. Desmond Clark, and W. Henry Gilbert.[2][25]

2006 - The Oldowan: Case Studies into the Earliest Stone Age, co-authored with Nicholas Toth.[2][25]

2007 - Breathing Life into Fossils: Taphonomic Studies in Honor of C.K. “Bob” Brain, co-authored with Travis Pickering and Nicholas Toth[2][25]

2009 - The Cutting Edge: New Approaches to the Archaeology of Human Origins, co-authored with Nicholas Toth.[2][25]

2010 -  The Human Brain Evolving: Papers in Honor of Ralph L. Holloway, co-authored with Douglas Broadfield, Micheal Yuan, and Nicholas Toth[2][25]

In 2004, she was an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[26][2]

In 2000, she was selected as one of 50 Scientists profiled by the New York Times in the book called Scientists at Work: Profiles of Today’s Groundbreaking Scientists.[27][2]

In 1997, she received a Distinguished Faculty Research Award from Indiana University,Bloomington, and was recognized in "Who's Who of American Women".[2]

In 1994, she received the Outstanding Young Faculty Award from Indiana University, Bloomington.[2]

From 1992 until 1994, she was the president of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists.[2]