Clark S. Larsen
The Ohio State University
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Primary Section: 51, Anthropology Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2016)
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Biosketch
Clark Spencer Larsen is Distinguished University Professor at The Ohio State University. 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. 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 his field. He was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2006, Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2016, and Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020. Larsen is an internationally known authority on bioarchaeology, the study of human remains from archaeological settings. His research is primarily focussed on health and lifestyle in the last 10,000 years of human evolution. In addition to major research projects in Turkey and North America, 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 trends since the late Paleolithic.
Research Interests
His current research pertains to the development of the big picture of the human condition, with special focus on the last 10,000 years of evolution and the sources of factors that have and will continue to contribute to challenges to well-being, including increasing population size and density, over-emphasis on diet high-fat, high-carbohydrate foods, the challenges facing humanity with the rise infectious disease, and the factors underlying deterioration of quality of life for many occupants of planet Earth.
