About
Robert B. Pickering, Ph.D., serves as the R.M. and Ida McFarlin Dean of the Library at The University of Tulsa. Previously at TU, he was the Founding Director of the Museum Science and Management master’s degree program and professor of Anthropology. In 1984, he received a Ph.D. in physical Anthropology from Northwestern University after completing his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
Pickering has served in various positions combining research, education, and administration in museums including the Field Museum of Natural History, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the Buffalo Bill Center for the West, and the Gilcrease Museum. His career combines anthropological research with the broader educational goals of museums. For more than three decades, Pickering also has conducted archaeological and physical anthropological research in the U.S. and Mexico. He has served as a forensic anthropology consultant for the U.S. Army at the end of the Vietnam War, and to numerous medical examiners and coroners around the country.
Pickering has written more than 70 articles and nine books for academic and general audiences. His next book “Luck is a Fortune,” is based on two diaries written by soldiers stationed at Fort Gibson (Oklahoma) in 1841. As a curator, Pickering has developed more than 20 museum exhibitions.
Education
- Ph.D., Northwestern University
Dissertation: “Patterns of Degenerative Joint Disease in Middle Woodland, Late Woodland, and Mississippian Skeletal Series from the Lower Illinois Valley” - M.A., Anthropology, Southern Illinois University
Dissertation: “Osteological Analysis of the Human Remains from Alta Vista Site, Zacatecas” - B.A., Anthropology, Southern Illinois University
Research interest and areas of expertise
- Museology
- Grant writing
- Exhibition development
- Museum programs
- Forensic anthropology
- Human osteology
- Bison