Mark Aldenderfer is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship Endowed Chair in the department of anthropology at the University of California, Merced. An archaeologist of high altitude cultural and biological adaptions, he has worked on the Ethiopian, Andean, and Tibetan plateaus. He is the author and co-editor of 11 monographs and over 150 scholarly papers.