Name: Metin Eren ‘01
Profession: Professor of Archeology at Kent State University
Student Activities: Soccer, Track, Christmas Food Drive, and Arrupe
Favorite Teachers: Mr. Popelka, Mr. Pasko, Mr. Fujimoto and Fr. Ober
“Learning the Krebs Cycle with Popelka, reading Moby Dick and struggling to get through it with Fuj, and Pasko being a role model for young men are just a few things that stick out during my time at Ignatius.”
Time as a Student:
Metin credits his time at Ignatius as to why archeology became interesting to him. Fr. Ober’s World History class intrigued Metin and made him ponder who and what walked the Earth before us. As a student, he did independent study in archeology with Joe Popelka where he went on professional digs with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
One thing he learned at Ignatius that is invaluable is the “eye of the tiger mentality”. “From sports to the classroom, it’s in everything you do. It teaches you to be ambitious and that ambition to be the best can never come at the expense of others. It teaches you to balance healthy ambition with what’s ultimately most important, to be a man for others.”
Professional Career:
Professor Eren has conducted archeological digs in China, Africa, India, and across Europe and has published over 240 academic papers. While an undergraduate student at Harvard, Metin published an article in the top archeology magazine at the time about ancient knives and how many times they were sharpened. He has also appeared on numerous History Channel shows and specials.
Metin is currently a Professor of Archeology at Kent State University, his speciality is human evolution and stone age archaeology. His main focus is Experimental Archeology, a field of study that involves recreating ancient activities to understand how people lived in the past. In 2016 Metin founded the Experimental Archaeology Lab at Kent, where students and professors can recreate and then reverse engineer ancient technologies, like weapons, tools, and pottery, to figure out how they work.
Metin’s goal for the program and lab is to develop a research endowment, which would free up his time to help students instead of writing grants.
Click here to read more about the Kent State University Experimental Archaeology Lab.
https://www.kent.edu/magazine/issue/2024/10/uncovering-history
Dr. Eren was recently featured on the History Channel! Watch the episode here: https://www.kent.edu/anthropology/news/dr-metin-eren-featured-history-channel
Advice to Current Students:
“Embrace adversity, life can be tough and you will face hardships. Ignatius will give you the tools to overcome and embrace adversity, and you will be better for it.”
