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Walter Leitner Award

Walter Leitner and the Leitner family have vigorously supported research and social justice advocacy around the world. The Leitner Center for International Law and Justice and the Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic at the Fordham Law School are some examples of the training, research, advocacy and praxis in social and transitional justice the family has supported. Walter Leitner has made a generous donation to the Forensic Anthropology Center since 2013 to support student research and travel. This award funded the research of six UT graduate students, listed below.  In July 2016, Mr. Leitner generously provided another $5000 for the 2016-17 academic year. The award can be used to fund research materials, research-related travel or travel to professional meetings to present research results.

The Forensic Anthropology Center will award up to $1000 to undergraduate and graduate anthropology students for the purposes of advancing the field of forensic anthropology, including purchasing research equipment or other materials, research-related travel, or travel to meetings (other than the AAFS) to present research findings.

How to Apply

To be considered for a Leitner award, please provide a 1-2 page description of the research or travel needs as well as an itemized budget to Dawnie Steadman (osteo@utk.edu).

2015-2016 Awardees

  • Alexandra Emmons
    2015. Walter Leitner Award for the study of skeletal DNA degradation due to microbial colonization.
  • Tiffany Saul
    2016. Walter Leitner Award to attend the isotopes course, Isotopes in Spatial Ecology and Biogeochemistry” at the University of Utah.
  • Alexandra Lopez
    2016. Walter Leitner Award to present a poster at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, in Atlanta, GA from April 14, 2016. Her poster is entitled, Testing Transition Analysis Aging Method on a Modern Colombian Skeletal Sample.


2014-2015 Awardees

  • Janna Andronowski
    2014. Walter Leitner Award for travel to Research at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron facility in Saskatoon, SK, Canada, to conduct dissertation research,
    “Evaluating Differential DNA Yield Rates Among Human Skeletal Elements: A
    Synchrotron Micro-CT Approach.”
  • Tiffany Saul
    2015.  Walter Leitner Award for travel and enrollment in “IsoCamp” in Salt Lake City, Utah, June 15-26. 2015.
  • Katie Corcoran
    2015. Walter Leitner Award for travel to the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s (USGIF) annual GEOINT (GEOspatial INTelligence) symposium in Washington, D.C. on June 22-25, 2015.
  • Jocelyn Minsky-Rowland
    2015. Walter Leitner Award for travel to deliver a poster, “Hidden heterogeneity in a modern skeletal sample” at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, St. Louis, MO. March 26, 2015.


2013-2014 Awardees

  • Corcoran, Katie.
    2013.  Walter Leitner Award for travel to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency to deliver a paper, “Remote Sensing for Human Grave Detection.” Washington, D.C., December 9-12, 2013.
  • Figueroa-Soto, Cristina.
    2013. Walter Leitner Award for travel to Spain, “Spanish Civil War Graves and Identifications.”
  • Jeong, Yangseung.
    2013. Walter Leitner Award for travel to deliver a paper, “A Caveat in Estimating Statures Using Trotter and Gleser’s (1958)’s Equations” at the Midwest Bioarchaeology and Forensic Anthropology Association conference, Ohio State University, Columbus Ohio. November 8-10, 2013.
  • Kim, Jieun.
    2013. Walter Leitner Award for travel to Japan for dissertation work, “Extending the Applicability of Transition Analysis (TA) Beyond the Western Hemisphere to Modern East and Southeast Asians.”
  • Saul, Tiffany.
    2013. Walter Leitner Award for travel to Spain, “Spanish Civil War Graves and Identifications.”
  • Wheat, Amber.
    2014. Walter Leitner Award for travel to California for dissertation work, “Investigating Postnatal Ontogeny in the Craniofacial Complex of Human Juveniles.”