Dolores R. Piperno

Dolores Rita Piperno (born 1949)

Early life and education Piperno grew up in Philadelphia before her family moved to Pennsauken, N.J. and Central America. She has also worked in Israel. Her research interests include the study of phytoliths, starch grains, and pollen at archaeological sites near the beginning of the domestication of various crops such as cucurbits, maize (corn), and peanuts. She is well known for her groundbreaking work with Klaus Winter on the origin of corn which included the construction of a greenhouse which replicated ancient environmental conditions. She and her colleagues have also found evidence for the earliest popcorn. She has developed some of the procedures commonly used in phytolith studies in archaeology and is one of the pioneers in the archaeological study of starch grains.

Honors and awards In 2005 Piperno was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. The Republic of Panama awarded her with the Orden de Vasco Nuñez de Balboa in 2006. In 2011 Piperno received the National Museum of Natural History Science Achievement Award.

Personal life Piperno has a daughter named Jenny and enjoys playing golf, reading history books, and gardening.

Selected publications