Sherwood Larned Washburn was an American physical anthropologist and pioneer in the field of primatology.
He earned a Bachelors Degree in Anthropology from Harvard University in 1935, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1940.
After obtaining his Ph.D. he became an associate professor of anatomy in Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. From 1947 until 1958 he was professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago, for a time serving as department chair. He then accepted a professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, position that he held until his retirement in 1979.