Daniel Lieberman

Daniel Lieberman is a paleoanthropologist who studies and teaches at Harvard University on the topic of how and why the human body is the way it is, and how that evolutionary history is relevant to health and disease. He is especially interested in the biology and evolution of physical activity, but also diet, metabolism, and the highly unusual human head. He is best known for his research on how and why human ancestors evolved to walk and then run long distances (with and without shoes) – often called the “Born to Run” hypothesis.

Lieberman has written 4 books:

• Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals about Food, Diet, Health and Eating Well (2026, Knopf)

• Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding (2020, Pantheon)

• The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease (2013, Pantheon)

• The Evolution of the Human Head (2011, Harvard University Press)

Lieberman has also published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, many in journals such as Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Lieberman is the Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences and a professor of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He received degrees from Harvard University and Cambridge University, and taught at Rutgers University and George Washington University before joining Harvard University as a Professor in 2001. He is a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In his spare time, he enjoys cooking and running.