Christopher Kuzawa

Dr. Kuzawa is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology and The Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. He uses principles from anthropology and evolutionary biology to gain insights into the biological and health impacts of human developmental plasticity. His primary field research is conducted in Cebu, the Philippines, where he and his team work with a large birth cohort study that enrolled more than 3,000 pregnant women in 1983 and has since followed their offspring into adulthood (now 30 years old). They use 35+ years of data available for each study participant, and recruitment of generation 3 (the grandoffspring of the original mothers), to gain a better understanding of the long-term and intergenerational impacts of early life environments on adult biology, life history, reproduction, and health. A theme of much of his work is the application of principles of developmental plasticity and evolutionary biology to issues of health.  More recent work is exploring the evolutionary and health implications of the high energy requirements of childhood brain development.  Kuzawa is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (US) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.