Dr. Bonnichsen, an associate professor of Anthropology and Quaternary studies, created the Center and served as its first director.
The Center relocated to its current home at Texas A&M University in the summer of 2002 to be in a more active academic setting with new education, research, and outreach opportunities.
Professor Bonnichsen was known nationally and internationally for his interdisciplinary research projects, for overview syntheses of the field, and as a spokesperson for First American studies.
The anthropologists believed that the bones were a national treasure with the potential to reveal significant information about the origins of the humans who colonized North America, and that they should be closely examined and tested before being turned over to contemporary Native Americans for burial.
The controversial case ended in a ruling from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal in favor of the scientists.