Michael Gurven is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is Chair of Integrative Anthropological Sciences, and Associate Director of the Broom Center for Demography. His research program applies an
evolutionary lens to help inform our understanding of aging and today’s complex diseases. Since 2002, Gurven has co-directed the Tsimane’ Health and Life History Project to better understand how aspects of environment and lifestyle affect health and lifespan in subsistence-level societies. He has worked for over two decades with remote South American indigenous populations, and is an expert on demographic, ecological and epidemiological studies of contemporary hunter-gatherers and farmers whose traditional lifeways are currently undergoing transition. Dr. Gurven’s projects have been funded by the National Institute on Aging. His research has received national and international attention, including New York Times, BBC, NPR, Scientific American and Wall Street Journal. He was also a recipient of an Early Career award at the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.