Professor White has conducted fieldwork in Africa since 1974. He has worked at many fossil sites throughout Africa, and was a member of the original team that analyzed and named the Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) fossils. Professor White also worked on the excavation of the Laetoli footprints in Tanzania. In 1981, White joined professor J. Desmond Clark in the Middle Awash project and took responsibility for the paleontological aspects of the research. He has led the paleontology team in the Middle Awash since 1990. He has participated in of all the Middle Awash team's finds and has dedicated much of the last 17 years to the discovery, recovery and analysis of Ardipithecus ramidus. He teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.