biology

Richard J. Smith

Richard J. Smith is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Richard J. Smith rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Jay Smith, an American anthropologist, (born 1948) is Ralph E. Morrow Distinguished Professor of Physical Anthropology at Washington University in St.

Key takeaways

Richard J. Smith belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Richard J. Smith to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Richard J. Smith from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Richard Jay Smith, an American anthropologist, (born 1948) is Ralph E. Morrow Distinguished Professor of Physical Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is now Dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

Education Richard Jay Smith, hailing from Brooklyn, New York, graduated from Samuel J. Tilden High School in that borough in 1965 and spent his undergraduate years at Brooklyn College, earning a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1969. He went on to Tufts University to earn a M.S. in Anatomy as well as a DMD. After Tufts, he studied at Yale University where he earned a master's degree in philosophy in 1978 and a doctorate in anthropology in 1980.

At Washington University Richard Smith joined the faculty at Washington University in 1984 and served as a professor and chair of the Department of Orthodontics, in the former School of Dental Medicine. He joined the Department of Anthropology in 1991. He founded the Program in Applied Statistics and Computation, now the Center for Applied Statistics, at Washington University, and he served as its first director from 2002 to 2004. Among undergraduates, Smith is famous for his course "Introduction to Human Evolution," which was one of the most popular classes on campus until his appointment as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2008. The course features topics from the historical development of the theory of evolution, fossil evidence, the morphological features of primates, to the beginnings of modern humans and is noted by many students to be particularly engaging, due in part to Smith's dynamic teaching style.

Research Smith is a specialist in the application of statistics to the general record of human evolution; specifically, how the information of the necessarily incomplete human fossil record can be validly used for complex inferences. He specifically is concerned with the evolution of the human brain, the craniofacial skeleton and gender differences in body size. He has also published studies making use of phylogenetic comparative methods.

Selected recent publications "Biology and Body Size in Human Evolution: Statistical Inference Misapplied", Current anthropology. 37, no. 3, (1996): 451–481 Smith, R.J.

(with W.L. Jungers) "Body mass in comparative primatology." Journal of Human Evolution 32:523-559. (1997) (with S.R. Leigh) "Sexual dimorphism in primate neonatal body mass." Journal of Human Evolution 34: 173-201. (1998) Statistics of sexual size dimorphism. Journal of Human Evolution 36: 423-458. (1999 ) (with J.M. Cheverud) "Scaling of sexual dimorphism in body mass: a phylogenetic analysis of Rensch's Rule in primates". International Journal of Primatology 23:1095-1135. (2002) " Species recognition in paleoanthropology: implications of small sample sizes." In: Interpreting the Past: Essays on Human, Primate, and Mammal Evolution in Honor of David Pilbeam (DE Lieberman, RJ Smith, and J Kelley, eds.). Boston, Brill Academic Publishers, pp. 207-219. (2005 ) "Relative size versus controlling for size: interpretation of ratios in research on sexual dimorphism in the human corpus callosum." Current Anthropology 46: 249–273. (2005)

References

External links Official web site at WUSTL

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard J. Smith

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard J. Smith claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Richard J. Smith before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Richard J. Smith ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Richard J. Smith

In research: Richard J. Smith appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Richard J. Smith in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Richard J. Smith is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1948 births, American anthropologists, Brooklyn College alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard J. Smith outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Richard J. Smith in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard J. Smith means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Richard J. Smith out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard J. Smith in simple terms?

Richard Jay Smith, an American anthropologist, (born 1948) is Ralph E. Morrow Distinguished Professor of Physical Anthropology at Washington University in St.

Why does Richard J. Smith matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Richard J. Smith?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Richard J. Smith.