UNM graduate student awarded prestigious Smithsonian Institution Fellowship

In his second year as a graduate student in the Public Archaeology master's program at The University of New Mexico, James Chaves has already achieved what many researchers strive for - earning a prestigious Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute fellowship.

"This was a big surprise to me and an opportunity I'm very grateful for," said Chaves. "Being from Panama, this is a chance for me to participate in an area of research that can help my home better understand fishing and preservation strategies."

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has 12 facilities across Panama, with the majority centralized around the Panama Canal, which provides easy access to the diverse ecosystems that exist there. The labs in Panama focus solely on tropical science. Researchers from all-around the world convene at the labs. Chaves will have the opportunity to meet and learn from world-renowned researchers.

"My time at UNM has been fundamental in preparing me for this fellowship," he said. "Especially my advisers, Keith Prufer and Ashley Sharpe. Their guidance and advice have been invaluable, as well as UNM's Center for Stable Isotopes. The center has provided me with hands-on training in laboratory techniques that are essential to my research and this fellowship."

--James Chaves, master of public archaeology major

Chaves will travel to Panama City next May to Aug. 2026 to work on his project, From Open Waters to Estuaries: Investing in Pre-Hispanic Fishing Strategies along the Santa Maria River in Central Panama.

In his research, Chaves will try to understand the long-term fishing strategies in pre-Hispanic Panama in the Santa María river area, and whether or not this population primarily fished open waters or gradually shifted to the intercoastal waterway.

He will reconstruct fishing locations and collect fish and algae samples during the three-month fellowship. Upon processing and analyzing each sample, he will learn how the ancient population fished and why.

During the analysis stage, he will be looking at archaeological fish remains from the Cueva de los Vampiros or Vampire Caves, which dates from 2200 BP to 1100 BP.

Ultimately, he will write a research paper that he will collaborate with his advisers Prufer, a UNM anthropology professor and director of the Environmental Archaeology Lab and Sharpe, an archaeologist for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, to make publishable.

"I am excited about this research, as it will be the first of its kind to provide isotopic data from fish in central South America in both Anthropology and biology fields," Chaves said. "This will be a great comparison from the past and present and hopefully help us today to better use our resources and make better decisions."

He shares that "it is important to know how these ancient populations used natural resources over time."

Chaves hopes this experience will serve as a foundation for the development of future research projects in the area of tropical anthropology, focusing on regions in Panama, Costa Rica and Colombia.