The Mildred Trotter Prize

This prize was created in honor of Mildred Trotter (1899-1991). Born in Monaca, Pennsylvania, Professor Trotter received a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1920, a master’s in 1921 and a Ph.D. in 1924 from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. After a year on a fellowship at Oxford University, she returned to Washington University Medical School, where she remained during the rest of her career. Professor Trotter’s principal research interest was skeletal biology, an area in which she made many important scientific contributions. She was an active member of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists and served as its President (1955-57). Professor Trotter died in St. Louis on August 23, 1991.

Selected Works of Mildred Trotter

Trotter M, and O.H. Duggins (1951) Hairs. In: V.M. Emmel & E.V. Cowdty (eds) Laboratory techniques in biology and medicine. 4th ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1964, pp. 195-196.

Trotter M, and G.C. Gleser (1951) The effect of ageing on stature. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 9:311-324.

Trotter M, and G.C. Gleser (1952 ) Estimation of stature from long bones of American Whites and Negroes. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 10:463-514

Trotter M, and R.R. Peterson (1955) Ash weight of human skeletons in percent of the dry, fat-free weight. Anatomical Record 123:341-368.

Trotter M, and T.D. Stewart (1955) Role of physical anthropology in the field of human identification. Science 122:883-884.

Trotter M (1966) Robert James Terry, M.D. January 24, 1871–April 18, 1966. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 25:97-8.

Trotter M (1967) Variation of the sacroiliac union. Medical and Biological Illustration 17:50-3.

Trotter M (1971) The density of bones in the young skeleton. Growth 35:221-31.

Trotter M (1972) Percentage ash weight of fetal skeletons. Growth 36:145-53.

Trotter M (1973) Percentage ash weight of young human skeletons. Growth 37:153-63.

Trotter M, and Hixon BB (1974) Sequential changes in weight, density, and percentage ash weight of human skeletons from an early fetal period through old age. Anatomical Record 179:1-18.

Trotter M, and Hixon BB (1976) The density of long limb bones and the percentage ash weight of the skeleton of Macaca mulatta. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 44:223-32.

Trotter M, Hixon BB, and Deaton SS (1975) Sequential changes in weight of the skeleton and in length of long limb bones of Macaca mulatta. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 43:79-93.

Trotter M, Hixon BB, and MacDonald BJ (1977) Development and size of the teeth of Macaca mulatta. American Journal of Anatomy 150:109-27.

Trotter M, and Peterson RR (1967) Transverse diameter of the femur: on roentgenograms and on bones. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research 52:233-9.

Trotter M, and Peterson RR (1968) Weight of bone in the fetus–a preliminary report. Growth 32:83-90.

Trotter M, and Peterson RR (1969a) Weight of bone during the fetal period. Growth 33:167-84.

Trotter M, and Peterson RR (1969b) Weight of bone in the fetus during the last half of pregnancy. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research 65:46-50.

Trotter M, and Peterson RR (1970a) The density of bones in the fetal skeleton. Growth 34:283-92.

Trotter M, and Peterson RR (1970b) Weight of the skeleton during postnatal development. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 33:313-23.

Trotter M, Peterson RR, and Wette R (1968) The secular trend in the diameter of the femur of American Whites and Negroes. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 28:65-74.Co.

2024

Hayley Welsh, University of Toronto. Interpreting Childhood Growth Disruption: Findings from a Medieval Toulousian Cemetery (10th-13th Century, France)

2023

Lily Hou, University of Calgary. “Reconstructing rodent locomotor behaviours using semicircular canal morphology”

2022

Valerie Sgheiza, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. “The effect of demographic variation on correlations between developing teeth in humans”

2021

Elizabeth Cho, University of Missouri. “The influence of climate and population structure on East Asian skeletal morphology”

2019

Katherine Bishop, University of Alberta. Isotopic perspectives on the shep-herd relationship at two Hellenistic (ca. 323-31 BCE) settlements in Thessaly, Greece

2018

Madison Bradley, University of Calgary. “Assessing biomechanical hypotheses about hind-limb elongation in jumping Primates using Longshanks mice”

2017

Kathleen Paul, Arizona State University. “Comparative performance of deciduous and permanent dental morphology in reconstructing biological kinship”

2016

Nathan Thompson, State University of New York Stonybrook. Frontal plane trunk mechanics in humans and chimpanzees, and implications for the bipedal gait of the last common ancestor

2015

Mary Cole, Ohio State University. A semi-automatic method for intracortical porosity quantification with application to intraskeletal variability

2014

E. Susanne Daly and K. K. Catlett, Arizona State University. A test of the inhibitory cascade (IC) model on primate deciduous premolars

2013

Gabrielle A. Russo, University of Texas at Austin. Functional morphology of proximal caudal vertebrae in nonprehensile-tailed primates (with M. Katherine Sayr)

2012

Zachary D. Cofran, University of Michigan. ‘‘Mandibular growth in Australopithecus robustus: a computational approach.’’

2011

Amber Heard-Booth, University of Texas at Austin. ‘‘Eye size and locomotion: A test of Leuckart’s Law in mammals.’’

2010

Kristi L. Lewton, Arizona State University. ‘‘Pelvic Biomechanics and Locomotor Adaptation Within the Order Primates.’’

2009

Olga Panagiotopoulou, Hull York Medical School, University of York, UK. Testing the adaptive signiﬁcance of the catarrhine symphysis using Finite Element Analysis (FEA).

2008

R. A. Menegaz, University of Missouri. ‘‘Loaded and spaced out: plasticity and function of the palate in rabbits, with implications for australopith facial form.’’ (Coauthors: S. V. Sublett, S. D. Figueroa, T. J. Hoffman, and M. J. Ravosa.)

2007

Christopher Gilbert, Stony Brook University. ‘‘Cranio-mandibular morphology supporting the molecular African papionin clades and the identification of Cercocebus antiquus.’’

2006

Jason Organ, Johns Hopkins University. “To grasp or not to grasp? Structure and function of platyrrhine caudal vertebrae.”