It is with great sadness that the Center for Human Evolutionary Studies announces the passing of Sara Magee, a valued member of our extended CHES community. Dr. Susan Cachel, Sara's undergraduate thesis advisor, offers this tribute:
"I am very sad to report that Ms. Sara Magee, a former CHES affiliate and alumna of Rutgers University has died. Sara graduated from Rutgers in 2019 with a major in Evolutionary Anthropology and a minor in Geology. She completed her senior honors thesis under the direction of Dr. Susan Cachel, with Dr. Hylke De Jong as the second reader. Her thesis was titled “The Effects of Chewing Time on Gonial Morphology in the Mammalian Mandible,” and she received 1st prize for her poster presentation on this work. She also graduated as a Paul Robeson Scholar from Rutgers. During her time at Rutgers she attended the Koobi Fora Field School, and was affiliated with the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton after her graduation. She later received an M.A. in Anthropology from the State University of New York at Albany, graduating in 2025, and was a member of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists.
Sara loved functional morphology. Her ultimate goal was to become a museum curator and study mammal evolution. Her life was too short. She will be sorely missed. They say that any person’s death diminishes us, and this is certainly true with the loss of Sara."
