David Meltzer elected to American Philosophical Society, becoming first SMU faculty member to receive honor

David J. Meltzer, Henderson-Morrison Professor of Prehistory in Dedman College's Department of Anthropology, has been elected to the American Philosophical Society, one of the world’s most distinguished scholarly organizations.

Meltzer is the first SMU faculty member to be elected to the American Philosophical Society, joining an accomplished 2026 class that includes inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, Salk Institute President Gerald Francis Joyce, and former University of Pennsylvania President Mary Elizabeth Magill.

Founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin, the American Philosophical Society is the nation’s oldest learned society and one of the world’s most prestigious scholarly organizations. Election to the society honors extraordinary accomplishments across STEM, the humanities, the social sciences, and public life.

Early members included Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine, who established the society to promote what Franklin called “useful knowledge” throughout the young nation and the world. Since its founding, the APS has elected fewer than 6,000 members, including more than 270 Nobel Prize winners among its current and former ranks.

New members are nominated by existing members and elected in recognition of exceptional achievement and leadership in their fields, joining what the society describes as “an active cohort of some of the world’s most innovative minds.”

An internationally recognized archaeologist, Meltzer’s research focuses on the origins, antiquity, and adaptations of the first Americans — Paleoindians who colonized North America at the end of the Pleistocene. Over a career spanning more than four decades at SMU, he has become one of the leading scholars in the study of Ice Age America and the peopling of the New World.

His scholarship has appeared in many of the world’s foremost scientific journals, including Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of numerous influential books, including The Great Paleolithic War: How Science Forged an Understanding of America’s Ice Age Past, First Peoples in a New World: Populating Ice Age America, and Search for the First Americans.

At SMU, Meltzer serves as executive director of the Quest Archaeological Research Program and has taught generations of students since joining the faculty in 1984. His courses have explored topics ranging from archaeological theory and North American archaeology to humanity’s earliest history and the search for Ice Age Americans.

Meltzer’s work is widely recognized for its interdisciplinary reach, connecting archaeology with climate science, genomics, environmental studies, and human population history. In 2025, he received the Society for American Archaeology’s Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research, one of the field’s highest honors.

In addition to his role at SMU, Meltzer is an affiliate professor in Prehistory, Climate and Environment at the Centre for GeoGenetics, Globe Institute, at the University of Copenhagen. He is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Medicine, Engineering, and Science of Texas.

Beyond academia, Meltzer is frequently featured in public-facing science journalism, documentaries, and podcasts, helping bring archaeological scholarship to broader audiences. His appearances include interviews and conversations on programs such as MeatEater, The Ancients, Wildfed, and Bear Grease.

Meltzer’s election to the American Philosophical Society marks another milestone in a distinguished career dedicated to advancing understanding of the earliest peoples of North America and the deep human past.