Valery Alekseyev (anthropologist)

Valery Pavlovich Alekseyev, sometimes Alexeev (; 22 August 1929 – 7 November 1991) was a Soviet anthropologist, director of the Institute of Archaeology in Moscow (1987–1991) and member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, exceptionally without having been a member of the Communist Party.

The Moscow-born Alekseyev proposed ''Homo rudolfensis'' in 1986. In 2006, the Russian Academy of Sciences established the Valery Alekseyev Award for Outstanding Achievements in Anthropology and Archaeology. Alekseyev died suddenly from thromboses in Moscow on 7 November 1991, aged 62.

The award-winning popular science book on human evolution ''Who Asked the First Question? Origins of Human Choral Singing, Intelligence, Language and Speech'' (2006) is dedicated to the memory of Alekseyev and his lifelong friend, Georgian anthropologist Malkhaz Abdushelishvili. Provided by Wikipedia