Tim White is an American professor who studies human evolution. His research focuses on collecting new data related to early hominids. He has worked in eras spanning from 5 million years ago to more than 10,000 BC. White grew up in Southern California. He first studied at the University of California, Riverside before he received a PhD from the University of Michigan in physical anthropology.

White has been a leader in interpretating hominid fossil finds, and has made major discoveries in unearthing some of the oldest fossils of our early ancestors. During the early 1990's, he and his colleagues found a 4.4 million-year-old Ardipithecus ramidus. Later he and his team would also find a 2.5 million-year-old Australopithecus garhi. White was also involved with the research on "Lucy", the skeleton to an Australopithecus afarensis that lived 3.3 million years ago.

White is currently engaged in fieldwork and laboratory studies being done in Ethopia and Turkey, while also doing his research at Berkeley.