Michael D. Gurven
Michael D. Gurven is an American anthropologist and Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He is co-founder and co-director of the Tsimane Health and Life History Project, a long-running biomedical and anthropological study of the Tsimane people of the Bolivian Amazon. His research integrates biodemography, human biology, and evolutionary anthropology to study human life history, aging, cardiovascular health, the evolution of cooperation, and health effects of modernization. Gurven's findings on low rates of chronic diseases among the Tsimane and the evolutionary roots of human longevity have received widespread attention in outlets such as BBC News, Aeon, The Washington Post, and Scientific American. He is the author of Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer (Princeton University Press, 2025), which challenges notions of short ancestral lifespans and has been reviewed in Business Insider., Gizmodo., and Science..
Early life and education
Gurven earned dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in anthropology and mathematics from Pennsylvania State University in 1996. He completed his Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of New Mexico in 2000; his doctoral dissertation was titled To Give and Give Not: The Evolutionary Ecology of Hunter-Gatherer Food Transfers. His primary Ph.D. advisor was Kim Hill. Early fieldwork and comparative research included work with the Ache, Hiwi, and Tsimane peoples.
Academic career
Gurven joined the UCSB Department of Anthropology as an assistant professor in 2001 and received tenure in 2007. He was promoted to full professor in 2011 and was named Distinguished Professor in 2024. He chaired the Integrative Anthropological Sciences unit from its inauguration in 2008 through 2022. He has served as Associate Director of the Broom Center for Demography and is core faculty in UCSB's Center for Aging and Longevity, and he is principal investigator on multiple NSF and NIH grants supporting work in demography, cardiology, infectious disease, and evolutionary medicine.
Research
Gurven is co-founder and co-director of the Tsimane Health and Life History Project (since c.2002), which follows thousands of Tsimane individuals and produces longitudinal biomedical and demographic data. Major findings include:
- Very low levels of coronary atherosclerosis among the Tsimane compared with many industrialized populations.
- Rapidly declining average body temperature in a tropical human population (2004–2018).
- Parasite infection patterns with measurable effects on fertility, immune function, and cardiovascular risk factors.
- Minimal evidence for a universal mid-life happiness dip in non-industrial populations.
- Evidence for slower brain aging and low arterial stiffness among elderly Tsimane.
Awards and honours
- Harold J. Plous Award for exceptional achievement in research, teaching and service, UC Santa Barbara (2004).
- Early Career Award, Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) (2010).
- Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2022).
Media and public engagement
Gurven has been featured in major outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Scientific American, Wired, BBC News, and Aeon, often discussing how insights from Indigenous populations can inform public health. He has been interviewed on NPR about cultural barriers to healthcare access among the Tsimane.
Selected publications
- Kaplan H., ..., Gurven M., Thomas, G. Coronary atherosclerosis in indigenous South American Tsimane. The Lancet. 2017;389(10080):1730–1739. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30752-3.
- Gurven M, Kaplan H. Longevity Among Hunter-Gatherers: A Cross-Cultural Examination. Population and Development Review. 2007;33(2):321–365. doi:10.1111/j.1728-4457.2007.00171.x.
- Davison R, Gurven M. "The importance of elders: extending Hamilton's force of selection to include intergenerational transfers". PNAS. 2022;119(28):e2200073119. doi:10.1073/pnas.2200073119.
- Gurven M, Stieglitz J, Trumble B, Blackwell AD, Beheim B, Davis H, Hooper P, Kaplan H. "The Tsimane Health and Life History Project: Integrating anthropology and biomedicine". Evolutionary Anthropology. 2017;26(2):54–73. doi:10.1002/evan.21515.
- Gurven M, Sarrieddine A, Lea A. "Health Disparities Among Indigenous Peoples". Annual Review of Anthropology. 2024;53:55–73. doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-041222-101445.
Books
- Gurven, Michael D. Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer. Princeton University Press, 2025.