Biography

I study human evolution and genetics. I’ve done research examining almost every part of our evolutionary story, from the very origin of the human lineage more than six million years ago up to the present day. My work on recent evolutionary changes has strong connections to global health, especially adaptations to agricultural and sedentary lifestyles and new diseases. For the past decade, I have been engaged with paleontological fieldwork in South Africa. I’ve been honored to work with the great team of researchers at the Rising Star cave system, where we discovered Homo naledi in 2013.

In my lab, we work to understand the evolution of humans and our ancient relatives, and how people around the world continue to evolve. We work on new ways of visualizing morphology and 3D relationships of fossil hominins, and on new ways of depicting the patterns that connect the genomes of people around the world. We work with whole genome sequences from thousands of living and ancient people, and are especially interested in the ways that environments selected for genetic changes in ancient people.

My academic home is the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where I am the Vilas-Borghesi Distinguished Achievement Professor of Anthropology. Right now, I’m also Associate Chair of Anthropology, an affiliate of the Department of Integrative Biology, and a member of the J. F. Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution. I am very proud to be a Visiting Professor in the Centre for the Exploration of the Deep Human Journey of the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.