Daniel Lieberman

Daniel Eric Lieberman
Born 1964
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Residence U.S.
Nationality American
Fields Biologist
Institutions Rutgers University
George Washington University
Harvard University
Alma mater Harvard University
Known for Human Evolution

Daniel E. Lieberman (born June 3, 1964) is a paleoanthropologist at Harvard University, where he is the Edwin M Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences, and chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. He is best known for his research on the evolution of the human head[1] and the evolution of the human body.[2]

Biography

Lieberman was educated at Harvard University, where he obtained his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. He also received a M. Phil from Cambridge University. He was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows and taught at Rutgers University and the George Washington University before becoming a professor at Harvard University in 2001. He is on the curatorial board of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, a member of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, and the Scientific Executive Committee of the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation. He is the director of the Skeletal Biology Laboratory at Harvard University.

Honors and Awards

Research

Lieberman studies how and why the human body is the way it is.[2] His research combines paleontology, anatomy, physiology and experimental biomechanics in the lab and in the field. He has focused to a large extent on why and how humans have such unusual heads.[1] He is also well known for his research on the evolution of human locomotion including whether the first hominins were bipeds,[3] why bipedalism evolved,[4] the biomechanical challenges of pregnancy in females,[5] how locomotion affects skeletal function[6] and, most especially, the evolution of running. His 2004 paper with Dennis Bramble, “Endurance Running and the Evolution of the Genus Homo[7]” proposed that humans evolved to run long distances to scavenge and hunt. His research on running in general, especially barefoot running[8][9] was popularized in Chris McDougall’s best-selling book Born to Run.[10] Lieberman is an avid marathon runner, often barefoot, which has earned him the nickname The Barefoot Professor.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 Lieberman, Daniel E (2011). The Evolution of the Human Head. Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674046368.
  2. 1 2 Lieberman, Daniel E (2013). The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, Disease. New York, NY, USA: Pantheon. ISBN 978-0-307-37941-2.
  3. ↑ Zollikofer, C. P. E.; Ponce De León, M. S.; Lieberman, D. E.; Guy, F.; Pilbeam, D.; Likius, A.; MacKaye, H. T.; Vignaud, P.; Brunet, M. (2005). "Virtual cranial reconstruction of Sahelanthropus tchadensis". Nature. 434 (7034): 755–759. Bibcode:2005Natur.434..755Z. doi:10.1038/nature03397. PMID 15815628.
  4. ↑ Lieberman, Daniel E (2010). Jonathann B Losos, ed. Four legs good, two legs fortuitous: Brains, brawn and the evolution of human bipedalism in In the Light of Evolution. Greenwood Village, CO, USA: Roberts and Company. pp. 55–71.
  5. ↑ Whitcome, K. K.; Shapiro, L. J.; Lieberman, D. E. (2007). "Fetal load and the evolution of lumbar lordosis in bipedal hominins". Nature. 450 (7172): 1075–1078. Bibcode:2007Natur.450.1075W. doi:10.1038/nature06342. PMID 18075592.
  6. ↑ Lieberman, D. E.; Pearson, O. M.; Polk, J. D.; Demes, B.; Crompton, A. W. (2003). "Optimization of bone growth and remodeling in response to loading in tapered mammalian limbs". The Journal of Experimental Biology. 206 (Pt 18): 3125–3138. doi:10.1242/jeb.00514. PMID 12909694.
  7. ↑ Bramble, D. M.; Lieberman, D. E. (2004). "Endurance running and the evolution of Homo". Nature. 432 (7015): 345–352. Bibcode:2004Natur.432..345B. doi:10.1038/nature03052. PMID 15549097.
  8. ↑ Lieberman, D. E.; Venkadesan, M.; Werbel, W. A.; Daoud, A. I.; d'Andrea, S.; Davis, I. S.; Mang'Eni, R. O.; Pitsiladis, Y. (2010). "Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners". Nature. 463 (7280): 531–535. Bibcode:2010Natur.463..531L. doi:10.1038/nature08723. PMID 20111000.
  9. ↑ Lieberman, D. E. (2012). "What We Can Learn About Running from Barefoot Running". Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews. 40 (2): 63–72. doi:10.1097/JES.0b013e31824ab210. PMID 22257937.
  10. ↑ McDougall, Christopher (2009). Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. Knopf. p. 304. ISBN 0-307-26630-3.
  11. ↑ "Barefoot Professor". Nature. Retrieved 25 September 2013.


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