Ms. Kerry Evans
Academic Staff Association
University of Western Australia
Nedland, WA, 6009 AUSTRALIA

Dear Ms. Evans:

This is a letter of support for Professor David Rindos in his bid for tenure. I was a member of Rindos's dissertation committee at Cornell University. I have known him and his work very well for a long time.

Rindos was a brilliant and creative graduate student. His dissertation was a outstanding piece of totally original thinking and research and was soon revised into his first book on the origins of agriculture.

He has a very wide-ranging intellect and his knowledge of evolutionary biology, archaeology, and anthropology is extraordinary. This is well known to all who are familiar with his published work.

I assumed that when Rindos moved to UWA, he would earn tenure at the earliest possible moment because of his excellent research and international reputation, and his care as a teacher. I am shocked to learn that a recommendation has been made to deny him tenure, at least partly on grounds of insufficient scholarly work. I hope that the administration of UWA will reject this recommendation and give Rindos tenure.

I know Rindos as a fine scholar and deeply caring person who respects his students and colleagues.

Sincerely yours,

/signed/

William B. Provine
Charles A. Alexander Professor
of Biological Sciences
and
Professor of History