Science Cafe: Clark Spencer Larsen

Our presenter will be Clark Larsen, Distinguished University Professor, The Ohio State University. Clark Spencer Larsen has been on the faculty of The Ohio State University since 2001, and currently serves as Distinguished University Professor. He received his B.A. in anthropology from Kansas State University (1974), and holds an M.A. (1975) and Ph.D. (1980) in biological anthropology from the University of Michigan. Larsen taught previously at the University of Massachusetts, Northern Illinois University, Purdue University, and the University of North Carolina, where he was the Amos Hawley Distinguished Professor of Anthropology. He has an appointment as Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History. He is the former chair of the Section on Anthropology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, and Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the leading research journal in physical anthropology. He was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2006 and Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2016.

Larsen is an internationally known authority on bioarchaeology, the study of human remains from archaeological settings. His research is primarily focussed on biocultural adaptation in the last 10,000 years of human evolution, with particular emphasis on the history of health, well-being, and lifestyle. He has directed or co-directed field and lab-based research programs in North America, Italy, and Turkey. Larsen is the co-director of the Global History of Health Project, an international collaboration involved in the study of ancient skeletons from all continents in order to track health changes since the late Paleolithic. He is the author of numerous scientific articles and has authored or edited 35 books and monographs, including Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior from the Human Skeleton (Cambridge University Press), Skeletons in Our Closet: Revealing Our Past through Bioarchaeology (Princeton University Press), and Bioarchaeology of Spanish Florida: The Impact of Colonialism (University Press of Florida). He is the founding editor of the book series, Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past, with the University Press of Florida. His Our Origins: Discovering Physical Anthropology, is the leading textbook in physical anthropology and is in its fourth edition.