UA Evolution Lectureship Series Continues with Physical Anthropologist Douglas Crews

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The fifth in a series of public lectures on evolution will continue at The University of Alabama with physical anthropologist Douglas Crews. Crews will speak on “Human Senescence and Longevity: Evolutionary Theories, Biological Models and Biocultural Influences” March 22 at 7:30 p.m. in 127 Biology Building Auditorium on the UA campus.

Crews will speak about the unusual nature of human longevity and aging.

Crews is a professor in the department of anthropology and the school of public health at Ohio State University. As a physical anthropologist, he focuses on studying human adaptation as demonstrated by the processes of aging, disease and other genetic and quantitative aspects of human variation.

Crews began studying these processes in Samoans in the South Pacific over a quarter of a century ago, but following the time honored pattern in anthropology, he has expanded his interests cross-culturally to understand aging and adaptation in a variety of other populations.

He is currently working with biocultural data collected from American Samoans, African Americans of central Ohio and Yanomami and Cofan Indians of the Brazilian and Ecuadorian Amazon. He drew on much of this data collected first hand for his well-received recent book, “Human Senescence: Evolutionary and Biocultural Perspectives.”

Crews has held many offices in national and international anthropological organizations, has widely published his research, and has lectured internationally on aging and adaptation. His graduate students have conducted research in Brazil, Ecuador, India, Cayo Santiago and the United States and on molecular studies of obesity, and blood pressure conducted in his genetics lab at Ohio State.

Crews’ lecture will be sponsored by the department of anthropology.

The Alabama Lectures on Life’s Evolution (ALLELE) is a series of lectures and will continue with a last lecture on:

• April 19: Philip Gingerich, professor of geological sciences and curator of the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan, will speak about the phylogeny and origin of whales, including the discovery and description of the earliest known whale.

The ALLELE series is funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation and by UA’s College of Arts and Sciences and College of Education. The lectures are designed for non-technical audience and are free and open to the public.