Ronald Schirmer

Ronald Schirmer is a Professor at the Department of Anthropology, Minnesota State University Mankato (MNSU), within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He holds a Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University of Minnesota (2002), an M.S. in Archaeological Studies from MNSU (1996), and a B.A. in Anthropology and Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee (1990).

His research focuses on paleoethnobotany, environmental anthropology, and the archaeology of North America, particularly the late prehistory of the northern Midcontinent. His doctoral work examined plant roles in cultural interaction in the upper Mississippi Valley, developing an interpretive model applied to botanical data from Red Wing, Minnesota. He specializes in interdisciplinary approaches combining ecological, cultural, and computational methods.

Teaching areas include archaeological methods, environmental anthropology, Native American cultures, and fieldwork. He is affiliated with the EARTH Systems Laboratory and actively teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in anthropology and archaeology. No scientific awards or grants are explicitly listed in the provided text.