Michael Gurven

Michael Gurven’s research focuses on the biodemography of the human lifespan and its implications for understanding development, aging, intergenerational transfers and familial organization. He has also studied social and economic behavior among foragers and forager-farmers, with a view to understanding proximate and ultimate explanations for the diversity of pro-social behaviors found in those societies as well as modern ones. This work, much of which has culminated in the Tsimane Life History and Health Project, has been extensively funded by NIH/NIA and by NSF including a 2.6 million dollar NIH/NIA grant on the biodemography of aging with Hillard Kaplan.