January 7, 2026
Congratulations to all the individuals, projects, and publications honored with AIA Awards! These outstanding contributors to our field will be formally celebrated at the 2026 AIA Awards Ceremony during the 127th Annual Meeting. We’ve reached out to this year’s winners to learn more about the discoveries that drove their projects, the experiences that shaped their journeys, and the inspirations that sparked their passion for archaeology. Stay tuned as we share their stories!
David Boochever
Award: Martha and Artemis Joukowsky Distinguished Service Award
What drew you to archaeology?
I became interested in history at an early age. My father was in the U.S. Foreign Service, and we lived in Europe in the late 1950s when I was growing up. My elementary school in Luxembourg had separate French, German, Dutch, and Italian sections. I was the only American in my class (French section) so I was more aware of national differences and national histories than I might have been at an American school.
The search for explanations keeps drawing the amateur historian further into the past, which naturally leads to archaeology, the only source of information about most of human history. Later on, I learned that written accounts, when they exist, are not always entirely reliable, so archaeology sometimes provides a way to verify or debunk them.
Tell us about your history with the AIA:
Like many AIA members from my area, I was recruited into the AIA and onto the Board of Trustees by my neighbor Charlie Steinmetz, archaeology enthusiast extraordinaire. I served as a General Trustee for twelve years, during much of which I chaired the Archaeology Magazine Committee, where I lobbied to have the back issues of the magazine digitized and made available on the AIA website. This eventually came to pass through the efforts over many years of Jarrett Lobell, Kevin Quinlan, and Kevin Mullen.
During my second term on the board, I co-chaired the Development Committee with fellow trustee Elie Abemayor. Annual Fund giving increased significantly over this period, thanks largely to the energetic and effective fundraising of then President Laetitia La Follette.
Questions? Learn more about AIA Awards here or reach out to awards@archaeological.org
