Daniel E. Lieberman (born June 3, 1964) is a paleoanthropologist at Harvard University, where he is the Edwin M Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences, and Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. He is best known for his research on the evolution of the human head[1] and the human body.[2]
Daniel Eric Lieberman | |
|---|---|
 Lieberman speaks at Ancestral Health Symposium 2012 | |
| Born | June 3, 1964 Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (BA, MA, PhD) |
| Known for | Human evolution |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biologist, anthropologist |
| Institutions | Rutgers University George Washington University Harvard University |
Biography
editLieberman was educated at Harvard University, where he received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. He also received a M. Phil from Cambridge University.[3] He was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows and taught at Rutgers University and the George Washington University before becoming a professor at Harvard University in 2001.
Director of the Skeletal Biology Laboratory at Harvard, Lieberman is on the curatorial board of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, a member of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, and the Scientific Executive Committee of the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation.
Honors and awards
edit- National Merit Scholar, 1982
- Phi Beta Kappa (Harvard College), 1986
- Summa cum laude, Harvard College
- Frank Knox III Memorial Fellowship, 1986–1987
- National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, 1987–1990
- Junior Fellowship, Harvard Society of Fellows, 1993–1996
- Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award, Harvard University, 2009
- Harvard College Professorship, 2010–2015
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2020
Research
editLieberman studies how and why the human body is the way it is, with a primary focus on the evolution of physical activity[2] His research combines paleontology, anatomy, physiology and experimental biomechanics in the lab and in the field. In his career, he initially focused to a large extent on why and how humans have such unusual heads.[1] Since 2004 most of his research has focused on the evolution of human locomotion including whether the first hominins were bipeds,[4] why bipedalism evolved,[5] the biomechanical challenges of pregnancy in females,[6] how locomotion affects skeletal function[7] and, most especially, the evolution of running. His 2004 paper with Dennis Bramble, “Endurance Running and the Evolution of Homo”[8] proposed that humans evolved to run long distances to scavenge and hunt. His research on running in general, especially barefoot running[9][10] was popularized in Chris McDougall's best-selling book Born to Run.[11] Lieberman is an avid marathon runner, often barefoot, which has earned him the nickname 'The Barefoot Professor'.[12]
Bibliography
editBooks
edit- The evolution of the human head. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press. January 3, 2011. doi:10.2307/j.ctvjnrtmh. ISBN 978-0-674-04636-8.[13][14][15][16]
- The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease. Pantheon Press. 2013. ISBN 9780307741806.
- Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding. Pantheon Press. 2021. ISBN 9781524746988.
Reviews
edit- Condie, Bill (February–March 2014). "The story of the human body". Coda. Cosmos. Review. 55: 106–107.
References
edit- ^ a b Lieberman, Daniel E (2011). The Evolution of the Human Head. Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674046368.
- ^ a b Lieberman, Daniel E (2013). The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, Disease. New York, NY, USA: Pantheon. ISBN 978-0-307-37941-2.
- ^ "CURRICULUM VITAE : Daniel Eric Lieberman" (DOC). Scholar.harvard.edu. Retrieved June 6, 2022.
- ^ Zollikofer, C. P. E.; Ponce De León, M. S.; Lieberman, D. E.; Guy, F.; Pilbeam, D.; Likius, A.; MacKaye, H. T.; Vignaud, P.; Brunet, M. (2005). "Virtual cranial reconstruction of Sahelanthropus tchadensis" (PDF). Nature. 434 (7034): 755–759. Bibcode:2005Natur.434..755Z. doi:10.1038/nature03397. PMID 15815628. S2CID 4362525.
- ^ Lieberman, Daniel E. (2011). "Four legs good, two legs fortuitous: Brains, brawn and the evolution of human bipedalism" (PDF). In Losos, Jonathan B. (ed.). In the light of evolution: Essays from the laboratory and field. Greenwood Village, Colorado: Roberts and Company Publishers. pp. 55–71. ISBN 978-0-9815194-9-4. OCLC 441208126.
- ^ Whitcome, K. K.; Shapiro, L. J.; Lieberman, D. E. (2007). "Fetal load and the evolution of lumbar lordosis in bipedal hominins" (PDF). Nature. 450 (7172): 1075–1078. Bibcode:2007Natur.450.1075W. doi:10.1038/nature06342. PMID 18075592. S2CID 10158.
- ^ Lieberman, D. E.; Pearson, O. M.; Polk, J. D.; Demes, B.; Crompton, A. W. (2003). "Optimization of bone growth and remodeling in response to loading in tapered mammalian limbs". The Journal of Experimental Biology. 206 (Pt 18): 3125–3138. doi:10.1242/jeb.00514. PMID 12909694.
- ^ Bramble, D. M.; Lieberman, D. E. (2004). "Endurance running and the evolution of Homo" (PDF). Nature. 432 (7015): 345–352. Bibcode:2004Natur.432..345B. doi:10.1038/nature03052. PMID 15549097. S2CID 2470602.
- ^ Lieberman, D. E.; Venkadesan, M.; Werbel, W. A.; Daoud, A. I.; d'Andrea, S.; Davis, I. S.; Mang'Eni, R. O.; Pitsiladis, Y. (2010). "Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners". Nature. 463 (7280): 531–535. Bibcode:2010Natur.463..531L. doi:10.1038/nature08723. PMID 20111000. S2CID 216420.
- ^ Lieberman, D. E. (2012). "What We Can Learn About Running from Barefoot Running". Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews. 40 (2): 63–72. doi:10.1097/JES.0b013e31824ab210. PMID 22257937. S2CID 16480403.
- ^ McDougall, Christopher (2009). Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. Knopf. pp. 304. ISBN 978-0-307-26630-9.
- ^ "Barefoot Professor". Nature. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
- ^ Smith, Timothy D. (2012). "The evolution of the human head by Daniel E. Lieberman". Human Biology: The International Journal of Population Genetics and Anthropology (Book review). 84 (2): 215–217. doi:10.3378/027.084.0206. ISSN 0018-7143.
- ^ Gilbert, Christopher C. (2012). "The evolution of the human head by Daniel E. Lieberman". The Quarterly Review of Biology (Book review). 87 (3). University of Chicago Press: 254–255. doi:10.1086/666810. ISSN 0033-5770.
- ^ Manjarrez, Alejandra (2011). "Where does your head come from?" (PDF). Lab Times (Book review). Vol. 2011, no. 5. p. 72. ISSN 1864-2381. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 9, 2016.
- ^ Vieira, Scott (January 1, 2011). "The evolution of the human head". Library Journal (Book review). Retrieved November 7, 2024.