Robert Bettinger received his B.A. (1970) and Ph.D. (1975) degrees from the University of California. He conducted most of his early fieldwork in California and the western Great Basin. He continues to work there but has since 1989 broadened his interests to include the archaeology of China, Siberia, and Argentina. He has worked almost continuously in northern China (Gansu, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia) since 1989, collaborating with a team of U.S. and PRC scholars interested in understanding the Pleistocene-Holocene transition and the origins of agriculture in north China.