William H. Durham, a biological
anthropologist and
evolutionary biologist
Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life for ...
,
is the Bing Professor Emeritus in Human Biology at
Stanford University.
Education
William Durham earned a B.S. at Stanford University in 1971, and graduated from the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
with a master’s (1973) and PhD (1977).
Career
Durham joined Stanford as a faculty member in 1977. He was a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (1989-1990) and Stanford's Director of the human biology program (1992-1995).
He has been the Bing Professor in Human Biology, as well as a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and a Senior Fellow in the
Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford. He is now professor emeritus.
Durham was a founding co-director of the research Center for Responsible Travel at Stanford (CREST) in 2003. In 2011, he became a co-director with
Rodolfo Dirzo of the Osa-Golfito Initiative (INOGO) which works with Costa Ricans to develop sustainability strategy.
Research
Durham has studied the demography, genetics, and resource management of the
San Blas Kuna of
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
,
El Salvador and
Honduras, and deforestation in Mexico, Central, and South America.
Based on his work in West Africa and Latin America, Durham has developed a theory of
coevolution which he uses to examine the ways in which the interactions of genetics, the environment, and human culture affect groups within human populations.
Works
Durham was Editor of the ''
Annual Review of Anthropology
The ''Annual Review of Anthropology'' is an academic journal that publishes review articles of significant developments in anthropology and its subfields. First published by Stanford University Press in 1959 under the name the ''Biennial Review of ...
'' from 1993–2008.
His published books include:
*
**''Escasez y sobrevivencia en Centroamérica: orígenes ecológicos de la guerra del fútbol'', UCA Editores, 1988,
* (reprint 1992, )
*
*
*
*
Awards
* 1983,
MacArthur Fellows Program
* National Science Foundation fellowship
*
Guggenheim Fellowship
* Danforth Foundation fellowship
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Durham, William H.
American anthropologists
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni
MacArthur Fellows
Human ecologists
Stanford University alumni
Annual Reviews (publisher) editors