Irwin Scollar

born on Nov. 13, 1928 in New York City, USA. Graduated 1945, Bronx
High School of Science, New York. In 1948 obtained a BSc in
Arts and Engineering with minors in Archaeology and Art History from
Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. In 1951, received an MA in Classical
Archaeology at Columbia University under William Dinsmoor. From 1948 to
1952 worked as an engineer in the development and installation of the color
television system of the National Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of RCA.
From mid-1953 to mid 1954, awarded a Fellowship at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York City and following this, a fellowship from the
Belgian American Educational Foundation in Brussels from mid 1954 to mid
1956. From mid 1956 to the end of 1958 PhD student at Edinburgh University
in Scotland, and PhD in Prehistoric Archaeology under Stuart Piggott on the
neolithic period in south Belgium was awarded in early 1959. Dissertation was
published in the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, Cambridge in the
following year. In the winter of 1956 awarded a fellowship by the American
Scandinavian Foundation for study at the Nationalmuseum, Copenhagen,
Denmark.

Since the beginning of 1959 at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn.
Retired, 1991. Since 1992, software development for archaeology and lectures
at Cologne University.

In 1971 appointed Department Head for Technical and Computer Methods in
archaeology. Responsible for introduction of systematic aerial photography from 1959,
geophysical prospecting from 1960 and computer evaluation of archaeological sites in
Germany from 1961. Research financed by large grants from the German Scientific
Research Council (Deutsche Forschungs -gemeinschaft) and the Volkswagen
Foundation.

Prospecting instruments developed in his laboratory included the first digitial
differential proton magnetometer for archaeology in 1961, several of which
were made for a number of other institutions during 1963-5 including Indiana
University, the Fondazioni Lerici in Rome and the German Hydrographic
Institute at Cuxhaven.

Designed and built the first large scale system for computer image processing in
archaeology and installed it in late 1975. This permitted the first
quantitative evaluation system for archaeological air photography and
for geophysical prospecting results to be developed. A database system
for archaeological sites was also developed which was made the
standard for the whole country by the Association for Rescue
Archaeology (Verband der Landesarchäologen) in West Germany. A
comprehensive software package for statistical methods in archaeology
was also developed for minicomputers. Ported to IBM compatible
PC's, it has since been acquired by over 800 users in 40 countries
throughout the world. Software for aerial photography was ported from that
used in Bonn to the PC in 1998 and since then has been installed at over 120
institutions.

From 1961 to 1966, lectureship at Bonn University in scientific methods of
field archaeology. From 1970 to 1974, consultant to the Gesellschaft für
Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung (GMD), the main German government
computer research center at Birlinghoven, St. Augustin, for image processing
methods. Since 1980 a lectureship at the University of Cologne in computer
methods for archaeology, and at the beginning of 1989 awarded an honorary
chair in this field by that university.

Guest lectures and visiting professorships at the following institutions:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1972, 1976, 1978-9, Purdue University,
1972 & 1976, Université de Aix-en-Provence 1977-80, Eidgenössische
Technische Hochschule, Zurich 1978-1980, University of Arizona, Tucson
1981, University of Mississippi, Jackson, 1981, University New Mexico,
Albuquerque, 1981, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1982. In 1984, a series
of lectures at the Institute of Electronics, Academia Sinica, Peking, at the
Centre for Archaeological Operations, Nara, and to the Japan Society of
Photogrammetry at the University of Tokyo. Member of the Standing
Committee of the International Archaeometry Symposium from its inception
in 1961 until 1988, hosting the 1978 meeting in Bonn and editing the
proceedings which were published afterwards. Co-editor of the Computer
Applications in Archaeology 92, Aarhus 1992 report.

Awarded the German Archaeology Prize in 1999. Invited keynote lecture at
4th International conference on Archaeological Prospecting by Austrian
Academy of Sciences, Vienna, September 2001. Honorary member
Aerial Archaeology Research Group 2002,
 International Society for Archaeological Prospecting 2004


Publications include over 120 scientific papers and 3 books. Click here.