Alan H. Cheetham is a paleobiologist and retired senior scientist and curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.
Born in El Paso, Texas, January 30, 1928, Cheetham grew up in Taos, New Mexico, received B.S.
His research is focused on the systematics and morphometrics of late Mesozoic and Cenozoic bryozoans found in deposits located in the Caribbean, especially the Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica, and Venezuela, and the Gulf coast of the United States, particularly Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi.
In April 1997 Cheetham was awarded the Raymond C. Moore Medal for Excellence in Paleontology by the Society for Sedimentary Geology.
In November 2001 he received the Paleontological Society Medal; he was, during the same year, honored with a festschrift titled Evolutionary Patterns, edited by Jeremy Jackson, Scott Lidgard, and Frank McKinney.