CSUEB prof catalogs skeletal remains on a first-of-its kind Web site

• June 14, 2011 5:45am

Cal State East Bay Anthropology Professor Henry Gilbert sees dead people. More accurately, he spots pieces of their bones and knows at a glance whether a bony body part he finds once belonged to a non-mammal or a hominid. He is now using modern technology to share his knowledge.

Through a first-of-its-kind Web site, Forost, Gilbert in collaboration with colleagues at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and others, is providing a reference tool for colleagues worldwide. Known as FOROST, the online project provides a database of images of skeletal remains and case descriptions that anthropology students, human rights and genocide investigators, and forensic workers can turn to when they need help in identifying a bone fragment or pinpointing a cause of death based on marks left on skeletal remains.

Read more about Professor Gilbert in the spring issue of Cal State East Bay magazine.

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