The Arc of Life (PDF)

Grazyna Jasienska, PhD:  Dr. Jasienska is a biological anthropologist whose research interests include reproductive ecology, human fertility, life history, and the implications of evolutionary biology for medicine and public health.  She has recently completed a book on the subject of evolutionary medicine entitled The Fragile Wisdom:  An Evolutionary View on Women's Biology and Health, currently in press by Harvard University Press.  Dr. Jasienska's research investigates the interactive effects of genetic, developmental and lifestyle determinants of variation in human reproductive function at both the population and individual level.  Most of her research takes place in rural Poland, where she directs the Mogielica Human Ecology Study Site (Beskid Wyspowy range).  Dr. Jasienska is a Professor at the Institute of Public Health, Jagiellonian University Medical College in Krakow, Poland and a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Anthropology at Yale University.

Diana S. Sherry, PhD:  Dr. Sherry is a biological anthropologist with primary research interests in metabolic health and reproductive ecology and physiology.  She has studied the nutritional ecology of Hadza hunter-gatherers in relation to seasonal resource availability as well as the effects of body weight and insulin levels on the reproductive hormones of Samoan women in the context of a modernizing society.  Dr. Sherry is currently working on a book project in which she describes how modern environments can disrupt ancient physiology, leading to cumulative dysregulation across multiple systems.  On leave this year from her faculty position as Science Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute of Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College in Boston, Dr. Sherry maintains an active affiliation with the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.

Donna J. Holmes, PhD:  Dr. Holmes is an evolutionary biologist specializing in the comparative biology of aging whose main

“The volume consists of 11 chapters that track human life history from parental experiences through juvenile development, maturation, and midlife to postreproductive age. … This book will be used in graduate seminars in human biology and biological anthropology. … this is a stimulating progress report on the current state of one of several useful perspectives on evolutionary medicine.” (Stephen C. Stearns, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 92 (3), September, 2017)“The book is a good introduction to a diverse set of active research threads in biological anthropology on evolution, health and disease. I expect it will be of interest to a graduate students and researchers in the fields of evolutionary medicine as well as health professionals with an interest in health and disease as an interaction between our evolutionary past and our present environments.” (Daniel Hruschka, EvMed Review, evmedreview.com, January, 2017)