Fifty Years of Research From the Human Biology Association

At the Human Biology Association (HBA) Meetings in March of 2025, we celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Association. In this Virtual Special of the American Journal of Human Biology (Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Human Biology Association: American Journal of Human Biology), we recognize this important milestone with an impressive set of papers that discuss the history of the HBA and highlight the diversity of impactful work being done in our field. This Special Issue includes: (1) invited reviews from the AJHB's Past Editors, (2) historical pieces discussing long-term foundational human biology research at sites in the Peruvian Andes and Canadian arctic, and (3) invited commentaries on 15 of the most influential papers published in the journal. The Human Biology Council (HBC) was initially incorporated in Washington, D.C. on November 19, 1974. The name of the society was formally changed to the Human Biology Association 20 years later by the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs in the District of Columbia on December 20, 1994 (Little and James 2005). The first annual meeting of the HBC was held in Denver, Colorado on April 9, 1975. This initial meeting was primarily for organization purposes, with the first set of scholarly presentations not occurring until the 1976 meetings in St. Louis, Missouri. The founding President of the HBC was Professor Paul T. Baker (Pennsylvania State University), who served in this role from 1975 to 1976. Michael A. Little (Binghamton University) served as the initial Secretary-Treasurer (1975–1976), and C. Owen Lovejoy (Kent State University) and Eugene Giles (University of Illinois) were the initial members of the HBC's Executive Committee (Little and James 2005). Table 1 provides the complete list of HBC/HBA Presidents, 1975–present. From 1976 through 1988, the HBC/HBA meetings consisted of a single invited symposium. In 1983, at the HBC Meetings in Indianapolis, the Pearl Memorial Lecture Award was initiated, given to the Keynote Speaker for the Annual Plenary Session. Dr. Sharon Kingsland (Johns Hopkins University) was the inaugural Pearl Memorial Lecture on April 5, 1983. The complete list of Pearl Lecturers is posted at: https://www.humbio.org/Pearl-Memorial-Lecture. At the 1989 Meetings in San Diego, the HBC Scientific Program expanded to include a poster session and a Joint Symposium with the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA). The inaugural AAPA/HBC Joint Symposium on “Comparative High-Altitude Adaptation” was organized by Lorna Grindlay Moore (University of Colorado, Denver) and was held on April 6, 1989. At the 1996 Meetings in Durham, NC, the HBA moved to its current format of two full days (Tuesday–Wednesday), allowing for more presented paper and poster sessions. The longer, 2-day format has been a great development for the HBA, allowing the Association to offer a wider range of scholarly engagement (e.g., workshops, training sessions, flash talks), and more opportunities for students and younger scholars to participate. With the expansion and growing impact of the field of human biology, the HBA established new awards to recognize scholars and researchers at all career stages. In 1996, the Franz Boas Distinguished Achievement Award was initiated to honor members of the Association for exemplary contributions to human biology in science, scholarship, and other professional service. Gabriel W. Lasker (Wayne State University) was the inaugural recipient of the Boas Award (for the complete list of Boas Awardees see: https://www.humbio.org/Boas-Award). In 2014, the HBA established the Michael A. Little Award to recognize the significant contributions of early career researchers in human biology. Barbara Piperata (Ohio State University) and Josh Snodgrass (University of Oregon) were the inaugural recipients of the Little Award (for the complete list of Little Awardees, see: https://www.humbio.org/Michael-A.Little-Award). The HBA also recognizes research excellence among graduate and undergraduate students. There are currently two awards for Outstanding Graduate Student papers/posters: the Edward E. Hunt Award (established in 1994) and the Phyllis Eveleth Award (Established in 2016). The complete list of Hunt and Eveleth Awardees is posted at: https://www.humbio.org/EE-Hunt-and-Phyllis-Eveleth-Student-Prizes. Outstanding research presentations by undergraduate students are recognized with the Hilde Spielvogel Award, established in 2014 (for the complete list of Spielvogel Awardees, see: https://www.humbio.org/Spielvogel-Award). Over its 50-year history, the HBC/HBA has had two official journals, Human Biology (1974–1988) and the American Journal of Human Biology (1989–present). Human Biology became the HBC's Official Journal in December of 1974 (Volume 46, no. 4) under the Editorship of Gabriel W. Lasker (Wayne State University). Prior to this, Human Biology had been the Official Journal of the Society for the Study of Human Biology (SSHB). However, in 1974 the SSHB established a new journal, Annals of Human Biology, as their official publication (Society for the Study of Human Biology (SSHB) 1974). Lasker served as the Editor-in-Chief of Human Biology through 1987, when the Editorship transitioned to Francis E. Johnston (University of Pennsylvania) (see Lasker 1988; Johnston 1988). Johnston's Editorship of Human Biology was short-lived, serving for a single year (1988) before becoming the founding Editor of the American Journal of Human Biology in 1989 (Johnston 1989). Michael H. Crawford (University of Kansas) took over the Editorship of Human Biology in 1989, focusing the journal on anthropological genetics and demography (Crawford 1989). Human Biology is currently the Official Journal of the American Association of Anthropological Genetics (AAAG). Johnston served as Editor of the AJHB for its first 2 years, 1989–1990. In 1991, Robert M. Malina (University of Texas) took the helm of the journal (Malina 1991) and served as Editor through 2002. Peter T. Ellison (Harvard University) became the Editor of the AJHB in 2003 and served through 2013 when he then transitioned to the Editorship of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Lynnette Leidy Sievert (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) assumed the role of Editor-in-Chief in 2014, serving into the fall of 2019 when I took on the Editorship (Leonard 2019). During its five-decade history, the Official Journal of the HBC/HBA has expanded from a quarterly publication (Human Biology, 1974–1985) to a bi-monthly journal (Human Biology, 1986–1988; AJHB, 1989–2021), to its current monthly format (AJHB, 2022–present). These changes reflect the tremendous growth and diversification of research in human population biology. The contributions to this Special Issue highlight the impressive growth and maturation of our field. The previous Editors of the journal, Lynnette Sievert, Robert Malina, and Peter Ellison and Richard Bribiescas have each contributed thoughtful and authoritative review papers on their areas of expertise. I am tremendously grateful to them for sharing their insights with these important contributions. Lynnette Sievert's (2025) review traces the growth and expansion of women's health research in human biology. Sievert elegantly presents the parallel developments in women's health research and the HBC/HBA since the mid-1970s. The creation of the HBC Meetings coincided with the United Nations' “International Women's Year” Conference in Mexico City in 1975, followed by the UN's “Decade for Women” from 1976 to 1985. Similarly, the late 1980s and early 1990s saw development of the AJHB along with the establishment of the U.S. Office of Research on Women's Health at the National Institutes of Health (1990), advancing the study of the biological and social influences on women's health. Sievert highlights the important themes and trends in women's health research in our field over the last 50 years, noting the increasing importance of biocultural, evolutionary, and life-history approaches. It is these rich theoretical and cross-cultural perspectives that distinguish the research in our field from clinical approaches, seeing the study of women's health as central to our understanding of human variation. Robert Malina's (2025a) review explores the implications of adolescent physical activity and fitness for shaping health status in adulthood. Over the span of his career, Malina has been a leader in advancing our understanding of how earlier-life activity and fitness levels influence adult health and well-being (Malina 2025b). In his paper, Malina discusses and synthesizes the results of several important longitudinal studies, highlighting the influences of adolescent fitness/health on a range of adult outcomes, including BMI, aerobic capacity, grip strength, and cardiovascular disease mortality. Bribiescas and Ellison (2026) provide a compelling and detailed examination of the foundations and tremendous growth in the field of human reproductive ecology. Bribiescas and Ellison have been leaders in developing and adapting methods from reproductive and metabolic endocrinology to address important questions about the ecology and evolution of human life history strategies. Their paper documents how methodological innovation from human biology has been blended with theoretical perspectives from evolutionary anthropology to provide new and powerful insights into the origin and nature of diverse human reproductive patterns. Three papers in this Special Issue examine the history of long-term human biology research initiated as part of the International Biological Programme (IBP) in the 1960s and early 1970s. Papers by Michael Little et al. (2025) and Roberto Frisancho (2025) trace the history of 60+ years of research on high altitude adaptation and human health at the site of Nuñoa, Peru. Little et al. (2025) discuss the early IBP-era foundational human adaptability work done in Nuñoa, followed by studies of health and nutritional change in 1980s through ongoing research that is tracking the social and developmental influences on the rise of chronic health problems in the region. Frisancho (2025) offers his personal reflections on the origins of the Penn State High Altitude Research Project, and how this initial research in Nuñoa served as a foundation for his subsequent studies of developmental adaptation in Cusco and Puno, Peru and La Paz, Bolivia. His Developmental Adaptation Model continues to serve as a framework for studying adaptability and health. Peter Katzmaryk and I examine the long-term research of Roy J. Shephard (University of Toronto) and colleagues with the Inuit community of Igloolik, Canada (Leonard and Katzmarzyk 2025). Like Nuñoa, Igloolik was a site of early IBP research during the 1960s and 1970s. Shephard and colleagues continued their research in Igloolik through the early 1990s studying adaptation to arctic conditions and the impact of lifestyle change on health. This longitudinal study provided some of the first clear evidence on how the process of acculturation and lifestyle change erodes physical development and metabolic health among Indigenous populations of the north (Shepard and Rode 1996). Shephard and colleagues' contributions continue to shape ongoing research on circumpolar human biology. This Special Issue also includes 15 Commentaries that provide updates and reflections on some of the most influential papers in the journal's history. These contributions span the broad scope of research encompassed by the field of human population biology, including: theoretical advancements (Hawkes 2025; Kramer 2025), evolutionary/adaptive dimensions of human biology (Bogin and Smith 2025; Aiello 2025; Holliday et al. 2025; Wells 2025; Childebayeva et al. 2025), insights into human health disparities (Kuzawa and Sweet 2025; Knutson 2025; Martorell 2025; Brewis et al. 2025), and methodological innovations (McDade 2025; Reitsema 2025; Windhager et al. 2025; Miller et al. 2025). All of these invited commentaries are linked to their original papers. Kristen Hawkes (2025) provides a detailed update on her important 2003 paper on the “Grandmother Hypothesis” and the evolution of longevity in humans (Hawkes 2003). She outlines historical/theoretical foundations of the model and highlights the multiple lines of evidence used for better understanding the evolution of cooperation, slow infant/childhood development, and long lifespans in the hominin lineage. Karen Kramer (2025) revisits the landmark research of Robert Walker et al. (2006) on patterns of variation in physical growth rates across 22 small-scale human populations. Together, these papers are important in moving us beyond simply describing differences in human growth to richly framing the study of these differences in an evolutionary life history perspective. Bogin and Smith (2025) traverse similar ground as Hawkes and Kramer in updating their influential paper on the “Evolution of the Human Life Cycle” (Bogin and Smith 1996). In their contributions, Bogin and Smith expertly weave together data from human growth and development, primate biology, and paleoanthropology to offer insights on both the timing and selective pressures for the evolution of the distinctive human life cycle. Papers by Leslie Aiello (2025) and Trent Holliday et al. (2025) examine the ecology and evolution of our hominin ancestors, Homo erectus and the Neandertals, respectively. Aiello draws on new data and advancements in energetics research to expand and refine the innovative life history model of H. erectus females that she and Cathy Key developed over 20 years ago (Aiello and Key 2002). While the modeling parameters changed, Aiello notes that the conclusions from the original paper still stand, that the adoption of a human reproductive schedule among H. erectus females would have substantially reduced the energetic costs per offspring. Similarly, Holliday et al. (2025) assess the changes in our understanding of Neandertal adaptive strategies since the publication of Ted Steegmann et al.'s (2002) influential paper. As with the Aiello paper, advancements in both human physiology (e.g., the role of brown adipose tissue in human thermoregulation) and paleoanthropology provide us with a much richer picture of how Neandertals survived and adapted to extreme arctic conditions. Wells (2025) and Childebayeva et al. (2025), in turn, explore evolutionary and adaptive strategies among contemporary human populations. Wells provides a detailed and thoughtful update on his “Maternal Capital Hypothesis” from 2010 (Wells 2010). The model demonstrates how the impact of social and ecological stressors on maternal physiology has transgenerational influences on child growth and the persistence of health inequities. Wells offers the implications of this model for developing policies to reduce gender inequality and promote intergenerational justice. Childebayeva et al. (2025) revisit foundational questions about differences in adaptive patterns among high altitude populations that were examined by Bigham et al. (2013). Research over the last decade has provided a deeper understanding of the genetics of adaptive hemoglobin dynamics across Tibetan, Andean, and Ethiopian populations. This work highlights the ongoing evolution of our species and showcases the distinctive adaptive strategies to high altitude stressors observed in different parts of the world. Papers by Kuzawa and Sweet (2025), Knutson (2025), Martorell (2025), and Brewis et al. (2025) explore the nature of disparities in human health outcomes. Kuzawa and Sweet offer an updated model on the developmental origins of racial differences in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks in the United States from the one that they initially presented in their landmark 2009 paper (Kuzawa and Sweet 2009). Drawing on their review of recent studies, Kuzawa and Sweet delineate the multiple different pathways through which structural racism increases CVD risks in Black Americans. Their novel “Push-Pull” model provides an explanation for why birth weight appears to be a weaker predictor of adverse adult health outcomes in Black Americans relative to their white counterparts. Knutson (2025) provides a timely and much-needed update on her authoritative paper on the role of sleep disturbances in shaping risks for obesity (Knutson 2012). Her current paper draws on recent work to highlight the role of sleep in contributing to a wide range of health outcomes, including CVD risks, immune function, and cognitive/mental well-being. As a leader in this domain, Knutson sees much room for growth and expansion of sleep research in human biology. Martorell (2025) reflects on his immense contributions to our understanding of the long-term health consequences of early-life undernutrition, commenting on the paper from his 2016 Pearl Memorial Lecture to the HBA (Martorell 2017). The work of Martorell and his colleagues on the INCAP (Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama) Longitudinal Study in Guatemala clearly demonstrated that the “first 1000 days”, from gestation through the first 2 years of life, are a “critical window” for influencing long-term health and human capital. This perspective now informs and shapes ongoing research in human biology, global nutrition, and development economics. Brewis et al. (2025) examine the advances in our understanding of the interplay between water and food insecurity, building on their pioneering work from the Household Water Insecurity Experiences Research Coordination Network (HWISE-RCN) and the Water Insecurity Community of Practice (WISE-CP) initiatives (Brewis et al. 2020). The current paper highlights the improvements in methods for measuring the dynamics of water insecurity and in our understanding of causal pathways linking food/water insecurity with global health disparities. The papers by Thomas McDade (2025), Laurie Reitsema (2025), Sonja Windhager et al. (2025), and Elizabeth Miller et al. (2025) showcase the methodological innovation and diversity that characterizes the field of human biology. McDade (2025) documents the tremendous expansion and development of minimally-invasive dried blood spot (DBS) sampling methods since the publication of his important “Human Biology Toolkit” paper over a decade ago (McDade 2014). As pioneers in developing methods of DBS sampling and analysis, McDade and his colleagues have transformed our abilities to evaluate human biological variation and health in diverse field settings. He notes that as human biologists, we are uniquely prepared to use these approaches to explore the mechanisms through which social and physical environments shape the human condition. Reitsema (2025) revisits the themes from her influential 2013 paper on the use of stable isotope analyses for assessing physiological function and health (Reitsema 2013). Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, stable isotope analyses have been most widely used in anthropological/archaeological research for reconstructing dietary patterns. Reitsema's contributions document the remarkable growth in the use of stable isotope methodologies and outline the potential for the application of these techniques for exploring human physiological diversity in response to social and ecological stressors. Windhager et al. (2025) build on their innovative research linking morphometric analyses of physical appearance to measures of health and physical strength (Windhager et al. 2011). This work has expanded the scope of our field by integrating rigorous research on the measurement and evolutionary significance of “physical attractiveness” with measures of human health and This now for the framing and of a range of from human ecology. Miller et al. (2025) expertly review the diversification and of research on human over the last years et al. 2013). 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