Catherine "Kay" S. Fowler is an anthropologist whose work has focused on preserving the cultures of the native people of the Great Basin. She earned her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, and from 1964 to 2007 taught at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she is now Professor Emerita. Fowler is a research associate for the Nevada State Museum and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History where she has participated in the Council for the Preservation of Anthropological Records, and she has served as president of the Society of Ethnobiology. In 1995 she was named Outstanding Researcher of the Year at the University of Nevada, Reno. In 2011, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

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