Anthropologist, Botanist Appointed at Bishop Museum
Allen Alison, Ph.D., Vice President of Science at Bishop Museum, has announced the appointments of Jennifer G. Kahn, Ph.D., and Neil Snow, Ph.D. to positions on the staff of Bishop Museum’s prestigious and internationally recognized Science and Anthropology Departments.
Dr. Kahn was named Assistant Anthropologist and Research Archaeologist under the direction of respected anthropologist Tianlong Jiao, Ph.D. Dr. Kahn is a recent Post-Doctoral Fellow in Archaeology at the University of Queensland in Australia. She received her Ph.D. in 2005 from the University of California, Berkeley, for her work on late prehistoric household and community organization in the Society Islands.
She has conducted archaeological field research in Polynesia and Melanesia for over the last fourteen years, working in the Hawaiian Islands, the Society Islands, the Marquesas Islands, and New Caledonia. Her research interests include studies of the political economy, socio-political complexity and the emergence of hierarchical relations, household archaeology, and lithic technology (studies of stone tools, particularly adzes).
Dr. Kahn’s special interests include “household archaeology”. She has excavated prehistoric house sites in the Society Islands and New Caledonia as a means of looking into the daily lives of peoples in the past and reconstructing social organization (status and gender differences) from material remains. Other themes in her research have included the organization of adze production in Eastern Polynesia. She has analyzed collections from the Hawaiian Islands, the Marquesas Islands, Pitcairn, and the Society Islands.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Dr. Kahn grew up in Rye, New York. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley (B.A. and Ph.D.), and the University of Calgary (M.A.). Dr. Kahn first worked as an archaeologist in the American Southwest with the renowned archaeologist Richard R. S. (Scotty) MacNeish. After taking a course on prehistoric agriculture in Oceania from Patrick V. Kirch, she re-directed her interests to archaeological research in the Pacific Islands. After receiving her B.A., Dr. Kahn worked briefly for the Bishop Museum as an archaeology technician in 1993 doing research and analyses of artifacts from prehistoric sites in Hālawa Valley. During her M.A. work at University of Calgary, Dr. Kahn worked on projects in the Marquesas Islands with University of Hawai‘i’s Barry Rollett, Ph.D.
Since 1999, Dr. Kahn has directed her own archaeological field projects on the island of Mo’orea in the Society Islands. She currently holds a major grant to conduct settlement pattern archaeology in the ‘Opunohu Valley with her colleague Patrick V. Kirch.
Dr. Kahn has authored numerous papers and chapters in a variety of prestigious journals and books. She has lectured widely and taught university-level courses on archaeology at the University of Queensland, UC Berkeley, and the University of Calgary.
Dr. Kahn may be contacted by phone at or (808) 847-8285; or by e-mail at jennifer.kahn@bishopmuseum.org.
Neil Snow, Ph.D., was recently appointed Botanist at the Bishop Museum. He also holds the position of Adjunct Researcher at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. His research interests include the systematics, evolution, and conservation of species in the Myrtle Family (Myrtaceae) from the Austral-Pacific region and the Grass Family (Poaceae).
Dr. Snow’s field experience includes most parts of the continental U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, several countries in southern Africa, The Philippines, New Caledonia, and Australia. His museum-based research has included visits to herbaria in the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, and numerous other countries. He has collected over 10,000 specimens of vascular plants, including many from the Rocky Mountain region.
Before joining the Bishop Museum, Dr. Snow worked as an Associate Professor of Biology and Curator of the Herbarium at the University of Northern Colorado. During his 9-1/2 years at UNC he mentored several graduate student theses and developed an active herbarium. Prior to that time he worked for two years as Senior Botanist at the Queensland Herbarium in Brisbane, Australia.
Neil holds degrees in Botany from Colorado State University (B.S.) and the University of Wyoming (M.S.). He earned his Ph.D. in Population and Evolutionary Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, while carrying out his doctoral studies at the Missouri Botanical Garden under Dr. Peter Raven. His dissertation was a monograph of a genus commonly called Sprangletop (Leptochloa), which occurs nearly worldwide in tropical and warm-temperate areas.
Dr. Snow has published widely on the systematics of Myrtaceae and Poaceae, and has described four new genera and several dozen new species from Australia, New Caledonia, Madagascar and Sri Lanka. He recently posted a comprehensive list of vascular plant species for the Southern Rocky Mountain region on-line. He speaks and reads Spanish well and reads Portuguese.
Dr. Snow may be reached at (808) 847-8226; by Fax at (808) 848-4132; or by e-mail at neil.snow@bishopmuseum.org.
For more information about employment opportunities or the Science Department at Bishop Museum call (808) 847-3511 or visit www.bishopmuseum.org.
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