Curator Emeritus
Negaunee Integrative Research Center
My book How We Do It: The Evolution and Future of Human Reproduction was released by Basic Books on June 11, 2013. In connection with the book, I recently started a regular monthly blog with Psychology Today. In the tree of life, human evolution is a very unusual case in many ways. If the focus of study is too narrow, it is difficult to avoid special pleading. My long-term research strategy has hence been rooted in the conviction that a wide-ranging approach is essential to identify reliable general principles. Secure interpretation of our biological origins demands comprehensive study of primate evolution from its earliest beginnings. In this spirit, I have conducted sweeping comparisons across primates, covering anatomy of both living and fossil representatives, ecology, behaviour, reproduction and molecular evolution. Study of size relationships (allometric scaling) has been a pervasive theme. A synthetic approach to primate evolution has several benefits. In addition to generating sound general principles, it can reveal relationships that otherwise escape detection. One illustrative example is provided by the endeavour to determine times of divergence in the primate tree, notably the split between humans and chimpanzees. Because of major gaps in the fossil record, estimation of divergence times from earliest known fossil relatives can be seriously misleading. Statistical analysis of the numbers of living and fossil primates in combination with an evolutionary tree based on DNA evidence reveals that divergence times within the primate tree are generally substantially earlier than has often been claimed. In particular, the divergence between humans and chimpanzees&nb...
Education and Work
1964: B.A. (Honours) in Zoology. Worcester College, Oxford, England 1967: D.Phil. in Zoology (Animal Behaviour). Worcester College, Oxford, England
1969-1974: Lecturer in Physical Anthropology University College London 1974-1978: Senior Research Fellow, in charge of the Wellcome Laboratories of Comparative Physiology, Zoological Society of London 1975: Visiting Professor, Physical Anthropology, Yale University (USA) 1978-1982: Reader in Physical Anthropology, University College London 1978-1982: Visiting Professor in Zoology, Birkbeck College, London (organiser of Primate Biology course) 1982-1986: Professor of Physical Anthropology, University College London 1983: Professeur Associé, Musée de l'Homme, Paris, France 1986-2001: Professor and Director, Anthropologisches Institut und Museum, Universität Zürich-Irchel, Switzerland 2001-2003: Vice President for Academic Affairs, The Field Museum, Chicago 2003-2006: Provost, The Field Museum, Chicago 2006-present: A. Watson Armour III Curator of Biological Anthropology, The Field Museum, Chicago
Accomplishments
1968: Thomas Henry Huxley Award from the Zoological Society of London for Ph.D. thesis completed in 1967 1977: Elected Fellow of the Institute of Biology (London) 1982: Invited to give the 52nd James Arthur Lecture on the Evolution of the Human Brain, American Museum of Natural History, New York 1983: Invited to give the 11th Curl Lecture in Anthropology by the Royal Anthropological Institute (London) 1989: Invited to give a special guest lecture at the symposium "Fertility in the Great Apes" in Atlanta, Georgia 1990: Invited to give the Osman Hill Memorial Lecture in Primatology (with Memorial Medal) by the Primate Society (Great Britain) 1993: Award for Excellence in the category "Best Specialist Reference Work 1992" from the Literati Club (UK) for The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution (shared with S.Bunney, J.S.Jones and D.R.Pilbeam). 1995: D.Sc. degree awarded by the University of Oxford 1998: Invited to give the Gerald Durrell Lecture by the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust 2001: Elected Professor Emeritus by the University of Zürich, Switzerland 2003: Invited to give the Ernst Mayr Lecture by the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin 2004: Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Section on Anthropology
2001-present: Member of the Committee on Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago
2001-present: Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago
2003-present: Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Chicago
2010-present: Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago Main ThemesResearch Sketch
Contact
Related Press Release and Blogs
Image slideshow
Screen reader users can skip the following slideshow buttons by using heading navigation. All slides have been displayed above.