CARTA

CARTA
Name	CARTA
Formation	2006
Type	Research consortium
Headquarters	San Diego, California
Coordinates	32.7157°N 117.1611°W
Leader title	Co-Directors
Leader name	Sara Seager; George Perry
Affiliations	University of California San Diego; Salk Institute for Biological Studies; Scripps Research

CARTA

The Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA) is an interdisciplinary consortium dedicated to the study of human origins, cognitive evolution, and biological uniqueness. Founded by leading scientists and hosted in the San Diego research ecosystem, CARTA brings together investigators from neuroscience, paleontology, genetics, primatology, paleoanthropology, archaeology, and related fields to interrogate questions about hominin evolution, brain specialization, and comparative biology. The consortium organizes regular symposia, supports cross-institutional collaborations, and produces lecture series and publications that connect researchers from academic centers, museums, and research institutes.

History

CARTA emerged from a wave of early twenty-first century initiatives that followed breakthroughs in ancient DNA by teams such as those behind the Neanderthal genome project, comparative genomics efforts at Broad Institute, and paleoanthropological syntheses at institutions like the Smithsonian Institution and Natural History Museum, London. Founding organizers included faculty from the University of California San Diego, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who sought to create a forum similar in scope to programs at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University. Over time CARTA built links with research programs led by scholars associated with the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the Paleoanthropology Society, and museum curators from the American Museum of Natural History, informed by comparative studies from labs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and University of Cambridge.

Mission and Programs

CARTA’s mission centers on comparative investigation of human origins, drawing expertise from genetics laboratories at places like the Wellcome Sanger Institute and neurobiology groups at Columbia University, and integrating fossil evidence curated by the Natural History Museum, Paris and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. Programs include graduate training seminars modeled after workshops at the Marine Biological Laboratory and interdisciplinary summer courses akin to those at the Keystone Symposia. CARTA fosters collaborative projects that pair field-based teams working at sites such as Olduvai Gorge and Dmanisi with molecular labs housing resources similar to the Allen Institute for Brain Science and computational groups at Argonne National Laboratory. Education initiatives have linked CARTA to museum outreach similar to efforts at the California Academy of Sciences and public lecture series in alliance with the La Jolla Playhouse and regional broadcast partners.

Research and Publications

Research associated with CARTA spans fossil description, comparative genomics, developmental neurobiology, and behavioral primatology. Outputs have paralleled work appearing in journals such as Nature, Science, PNAS, Current Biology, and Journal of Human Evolution, and researchers include contributors with prior affiliations to Max Planck Society, University College London, and the Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University. CARTA-affiliated scientists have investigated gene regulatory changes highlighted by projects at the ENCODE Project Consortium and developmental patterning themes explored at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Publications often synthesize fossil evidence from collections like the Koobi Fora Research Project with genomic insights derived using methods refined at the Broad Institute and phylogenetic approaches used by teams at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

Notable Conferences and Events

CARTA’s signature symposia bring together speakers who have also lectured at venues such as the Royal Society, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and the World Economic Forum. Past events have featured presenters with ties to the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the University of Cambridge Department of Archaeology, the University of Chicago Committee on Evolutionary Biology, and field researchers from South African Museum expeditions and East African projects associated with Kenya National Museum. Topics span paleoanthropological milestones like discussions of the Out of Africa theory, reinterpretations of the Homo floresiensis fossils, and debates over the timing of cognitive innovations referenced in studies at the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology.

Organizational Structure

CARTA is governed by a board and a set of co-directors who coordinate academic programs with partner institutions including the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, University of California San Diego, and Scripps Research. Advisory committees draw membership from scholars at the Max Planck Institute, University of Oxford, Yale University, Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, and other centers of excellence. Administrative operations are modeled on research centers like the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind and integrate grant management practices comparable to those at the National Institutes of Health extramural programs and private foundations such as the Gates Foundation.

Funding and Partnerships

Funding for CARTA derives from a mix of federal grants comparable to awards from the National Science Foundation and philanthropic support resembling contributions from the Simons Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and regional benefactors. Partnerships span academic consortia with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, collaborative networks with the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and collaborative fieldwork agreements with institutions like the National Museums of Kenya and the Ethiopian Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage. Strategic alliances enable shared access to collections at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and computational resources at supercomputing centers such as XSEDE.

Category:Research institutes in California Category:Anthropology research organizations