Anthony F. Aveni

Anthony F. Aveni is the Russell Colgate Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology, serving appointments in both Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Sociology and Anthropology at Colgate University.

Featured in Rolling Stone magazine's 1991 list of the ten best university professors in the country, Aveni was also voted 1982 National Professor of the Year by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, Washington D.C., the highest national award for teaching. At Colgate he has received, among other teaching awards, the Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching (1997) and the Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society Distinguished Teaching Award voted by the Freshman Class of 1990.

Aveni has spoken or written on astronomy-related subjects on the Learning Channel, the Discovery Channel, PBS-Nova, N.Y. Times, Newsweek, USA Today, NPR, The Larry King Show, NBC's Today Show and Unsolved Mysteries, and has lectured in more than 300 universities around the world. Having received a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Arizona, Aveni helped develop and now is considered one of the founders of archaeoastronomy, in particular for his research into the astronomical history of the Aztec and Maya Indians of ancient Mexico. He has done similar research in North America, Peru, Israel, Italy and Greece. At Colgate, as well as at the University of South Florida, the University of Colorado, Tulane University and the University of Padua, Italy, where he has served as visiting professor, he has taught courses on astronomy, archaeoastronomy, cultural anthropology and the history of science.

Aveni’s expertise also includes the Islands of the Pacific. His Smithsonian book, Ancient Astronomers, contains a chapter entitled “Voyaging Stars of Oceania”. It features an illustrated discussion of the navigational methods used by Polynesian and Micronesian maritime peoples. Aveni has also given lectures and demonstrations in various planetaria on the topic of “Tropical Archaeoastronomy”. This is the subject of a feature article in Science magazine in which he shows how the cosmological and religious systems of Pacific Island dwellers are affected by the celestial environment they inhabit. Other relevant lecture topics have included the creation myths of ancient Hawaiian people, techniques of Polynesian navigation through the use of stick chart maps, and unusual Micronesian sundials, which are also discussed in a number of his published works. Aveni’s more than 40 appearances as a lecturer on small ships include Regent Sea, Sitmar, Norwegian Lines, Royal Olympic, and Renaissance Explorer.

Aveni’s most recent books include Empires of Time, on the history of timekeeping, Conversing With the Planets, a work that weaves together cosmology, mythology and the anthropology of ancient cultures by showing how they discovered harmony between their beliefs and their study of the sky, Ancient Astronomers, Behind the Crystal Ball: Magic, Science and Religion from Antiquity through the New Age, Stairways to the Stars: Skywatching in Three Great Ancient Cultures; Between the Lines, and Nasca: Eighth Wonder of the World, which chronicles his 10 year research program on the mystery of the ground drawings of Nasca, Peru, Skywatchers, a revised updated version of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico, The Book of the Year, A Brief History of Our Seasonal Holidays, Foundations of Cultural Astronomy, Uncommon Sense: Understanding Nature’s Truths Across Time and Nature, and The First Americans: Where they Came From and Who they Became, a book for children, which won the 2006 Golden Spur Award for Juvenile Non-Fiction given by the Western Writers of America, and made the 2006 Children’s Top Ten list of the International Readers’ Association. Two of his short pieces have been cited as “notable essays” in the volumes Best American Essays of 2001 and Best American Science Writing of 2001. In 2004, he was the recipient of the H.B. Nicholson Award for Excellence in Mesoamerican Studies, given by the Peabody Museum and the Moses Mesoamerican Archive at Harvard University.

With his artist wife Lorraine, he currently resides in Hamilton, New York.