Dr. Michael Gurven is Chair of Integrative Anthropological Sciences at the University of California Santa Barbara, a co-Director of the Tsimane Health and Life History Project, and Area Director of Biodemography and Evolution at the Broom Center for Demography.
He has conducted fieldwork with the Ache of Paraguay, and the Tsimane and Mosetene of Bolivia. three South American indigenous populations.
His research group studies how ecological and social factors shape behavior, physiology, health and psychology. Incorporating insights and perspectives from behavioral ecology, life history theory and evolutionary medicine, biodemography and human biology provides a unique research environment for explaining human diversity.
His working group occupies both wet lab and behavioral lab space, and field sites around the globe.
In Michael’s words from the Gurven Lab’s page:
I am an evolutionary anthropologist aiming to explain behavior and physiological systems as adaptive solutions to competing demands of limited resource allocation. I employ ethnographic field settings as laboratories for testing hypotheses about human variation in behavior, psychology and physiology.
Currently my research focuses on two broad, inter-related areas:
(1) biodemography of human health, lifespan and aging. I am interested in the roles of pathogens, diet, activity and reproduction in shaping the aging process – including immune function and chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and dementia.
(2) transitions in social and economic behavior. I study how pro-sociality and risk management strategies change with socioeconomic transformation.