Dr. Charles C. Kolb has published extensively on various topics including prehistoric and historic pottery, archaeological settlement patterns, ecology, archaeometry, petrography and military history.
VIENNA, VA, March 15, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D., with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Kolb celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
A recently retired administrator at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Dr. Kolb began 23 years of U.S. government service in 1989 holding various positions at this independent federal grant-making agency, which was established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965. NEH is dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities. Following a decade as a board member of the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, 1979 to 1989, he was initially a humanities administrator and program officer in the division of state programs, transferring to the newly-established division of preservation and access in 1991 and appointed as a senior program officer. His science and academic background led to responsibilities for research and development grants and projects for preserving and providing intellectual access to still and moving image and recorded sound collections. Similarly, Dr. Kolb worked on microfilming and digitization projects as well as the preservation of historical and archaeological material culture and archival collections, environmental controls, and collections' storage and rehousing. He was also was assigned to all 41 of the Endowment's "Recovering Iraq's Past" and "Rediscovering Afghanistan" initiatives from 2004 to 2011.
Prior to his many successful years in administration, Dr. Kolb spent 24 years in academia, teaching undergraduate and graduate-level archaeology, cultural anthropology, and human biology at his alma mater, The Pennsylvania State University (University Park and Erie campuses) for 14 years, and at Bryn Mawr College and Mercyhurst University. At the latter, he also served as the director of research and grants from 1984 to 1989 and was the assistant director of the university's Hammermill Library in 1989. His major archaeological and ecological fieldwork for universities and federal agencies, spanning the period from 1962 through 2017, was in Mexico, Afghanistan, and the Great Lakes Basin of North America. Dr. Kolb conducted significant research in the ancient Classic period city of Teotihuacan, Mexico and its supporting rural region; in Afghanistan he worked in caves and on open-air sites spanning 40,000 years from the Upper Paleolithic cultures through the Islamic period. He also undertook studies in Peru, Honduras, Guatemala, and Uganda.
Over the course of nearly six decades, he has published extensively on various topics including prehistoric and historic pottery, archaeological settlement patterns, ecology, archaeometry, petrography and military history. He has written six monographs, mostly on ancient ceramics, served as the co-editor of "A Pot for All Reasons" in 1988 and authored "Marine Shell Trade and Classic Teotihuacan" in 1987. In addition, he published 63 encyclopedia articles in 15 different publications, notably in the first and second editions of the "Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology" in 2014 and 2018, and "Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology" in 2016. Dr. Kolb has contributed more than 130 peer-reviewed articles to professional journals and written 29 book chapters. Furthermore, he has been the reviewer of more than 800 books for 68 different professional journals ranging from archaeological science to naval history and academic library journals. He has also been a manuscript reviewer of college-level textbooks and scholarly books and films. Among the publishers are university presses (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Virginia), Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Journal of the American Institute of Conservation the Field Museum, Science Books and Films, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer Verlag, and Centro de Estudios Arqueologicos el Colegio de Michoacán in Mexico. As an academic Dr. Kolb reviewed grant proposals for various organizations including the NEH, the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic, the Canadian Foundation Innovation, and the Social Science Humanities Research Council of Canada.
He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an elected fellow and golden lifetime member of the American Anthropological Association, a golden life member of the United States Naval Institute, and a lifetime member of the Society for Archaeological Sciences. In addition, he was an elected member of the Register of Professional Archaeologists since it was established in 1977. Dr. Kolb is also a member of over a dozen other professional organizations throughout his career, including Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Gamma Mu, Society of the Sigma Xi, and the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. In addition, he is a longtime member of the American Library Association, the American Ceramic Society, Archaeological Institute of America, Association of Moving Image Archivists, Materials Research Society, Society for American Archaeology, Society of American Archivists, and Society for Historical Archaeology.
Dr. Kolb is an internationally recognized expert on the classification, physicochemical analysis and provenance of archaeological ceramics; in 1986 he co-founded an annual symposium on Ceramic Ecology serving as organizer and chairperson, and organizer of the Ceramics Studies Interest Group since 1998. Beginning in 1997 he has been the associate editor for archaeological ceramics for the "Society of Archaeological Sciences Bulletin," a quarterly publication. His colleagues have honored him with the publication of two festschriften in 2013 and 2017.
At The Pennsylvania State University, he earned both a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American and Asian history in 1962 and was awarded his doctorate in archaeology and anthropology in 1979, concentrating on Mesoamerica and Central Asia. Dr. Kolb received the Excellence in Teaching Award from Penn State Erie in 1975. More than two dozen of his students have obtained Masters or doctoral degrees.
In retirement he has consulted for the National Museum of Afghanistan – Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago Partnership and currently for several government agencies particularly on the illegal importation of stolen artifacts from Afghanistan and Pakistan into the U.S.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D., has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
About Marquis Who's Who®
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
# # #