Dr. Matt Schmader has been conducting archaeological research for 40 years in the southwestern United States and obtained his PhD in 1994 from the University of New Mexico. He has worked at a wide variety of sites in central New Mexico, from PaleoIndian campsites and Archaic period dwellings to pithouse villages, sacred petroglyph sites, and the historic red-light district in downtown Albuquerque. Since 2007, his research has focused on the 1540-1542 Coronado exploration in the Rio Grande valley, its conflicts, and impacts on local native populations. He was the former Albuquerque city archaeologist and is currently an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico Department of Anthropology.