The Cornell Board of Trustees has named paleobiologist Warren Allmon the first Hunter R. Rawlings III Professor of Paleontology in Cornell's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

"Understanding the history of the Earth gives us a basis for understanding our current environment," said Kent Fuchs, dean of Cornell's College of Engineering, where Allmon's faculty appointment originates. "Warren has distinguished credentials, his enthusiasm is contagious, and his ability to communicate the science of paleontology is exceptional."

The new professorship is named for Rawlings, a Cornell professor of history and classics and the 10th president of Cornell, who served from 1995 to 2003 and as interim president in 2005-06.

"Warren is a remarkable scientist and acclaimed public spokesman for the values of understanding and protecting our planet in all its dimensions," said Rawlings. "He is also one of our most ardent and successful explicators of evolutionary theory, to Americans of every age and educational level."

To help Cornell students gaze back hundreds of millions of years, Allmon will teach such courses as Evolution of the Earth System, Paleobiology and Advanced Topics in Paleobiology.

"Earth is a very complicated place," said Teresa Jordan, chair of Cornell's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "In the context of current concerns about global change, the value of paleontology is that it records the outcome of Earth's previous changes. With paleontology, we can describe those environmental changes and their impacts on life. We realize that paleontology is vastly relevant to today's Earth."

Allmon has been teaching at Cornell for the past 15 years as an adjunct associate professor. He earned his A.B. in earth sciences from Dartmouth College (1982) and Ph.D. in earth and atmospheric sciences from Harvard University (1988). Director of the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) in Ithaca since 1992, he was instrumental in the development of PRI's Museum of the Earth, which opened in 2003. Under his leadership, PRI has become a leader in public education about evolution, including Ithaca's Darwin Day, which celebrates the birthday of Charles Darwin annually.

"Cornell is of course more than a great research university," said Allmon. "It is also a great land-grant university, with the mandate for outreach that implies. Cornell is thus a place for sharing scholarly knowledge with diverse audiences beyond the campus. Especially with respect to climate change, this has never been more important than it is today. With this chair, I aim to continue that rich tradition."