Samuel S. Urlacher, PhD
Associate Professor Graduate Program Director

Research in Progress
I am an anthropologist and human evolutionary biologist with an integrative biocultural research program. My lab's primary aim is to define the evolved energetic pathways that drive variation in human development, metabolism, and health. To do so, we address a range of research questions that span the traditional disciplines of human biology, behavioral ecology, evolutionary medicine, and global health. Our research questions include:
1. How have humans evolved to spend calories on life’s competing metabolic tasks (e.g., immune activity, brain development, growth, reproduction) across the life course?
2. Why are disadvantaged children and those experiencing rapid lifestyle change at risk for the “dual burden” of growth faltering and later life obesity?
3. How do chronic stress and pathogen burden damage the gut and generate variation in child energy availability, development, and lifetime metabolism/health?
4. Why did childhood and the unique human life history pattern evolve?
The Human Evolutionary Biology and Health Lab that I direct at Baylor specializes in the measurement of human energy expenditure (via doubly labeled water stable isotope tracking) and physiological biomarkers and hormones. My long-term field research is performed collaboratively with Indigenous populations in Ecuador and Papua New Guinea. I am also engaged in other domestic and international projects. This work addresses fundamental topics in anthropology and biology, but it also strives to reduce health disparities and to improve the lives of the amazing people that participate in my research.
My research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Leakey Foundation, CIFAR, the Jacobs Foundation, the Czech Science Foundation, and others. Science communication is important to me. My work has been featured by various outlets, including The New York Times, Good Morning America, Healthline, El País, The Chicago Tribune, and The Scientist magazine.
Please contact me with education and public outreach opportunities!
Degrees
PhD in Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 2016
MA in Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 2012
BS in Human Biology and Anthropology, Brown University, 2009
Teaching
Teaching is closely integrated with my role as a researcher, and I am committed to mentoring students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. I strive to provide my students with a transformative learning experience. I challenge them to think about, interpret evidence for, and understand what it means to be human in new and exciting ways. I apply active-learning techniques and new technology to engage students and to foster integrative understanding of complex issues. I make a concerted effort to promote the development of different skillsets and modes of communication using assignments in several media forms. Importantly, my students are encouraged to gain new skills and to test their own hypotheses by actively participating in research in the field or in the lab.
Prospective students: Graduate and undergraduate students are essential members of my lab. All are welcome – our lab policies are designed to provide an environment for everyone to do good science and to thrive intellectually (and to have fun while doing it, of course). Interested students should visit the HEBHL website and email me directly (samuel_urlacher@baylor.edu), including a CV/resume. I am particularly interested in PhD applicants who would like to focus on evolutionary energetics projects involving children’s nutrition/epidemiological transition, human aging and life history evolution, the role of inflammation/stress in the developmental origins of health disparities, and the dual burden of growth stunting and later life obesity. Those with field, lab, and/or computational modeling experience are especially encouraged to apply.
Key Recent Publications
- Urlacher SS. 2023. The energetics of childhood: Current understanding and insights into human variation, evolution, and health. Yearbook of Biological Anthropology 181(76):94-117. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24719.
- Urlacher SS, Kim LY, Luan T, Young L, Adjetey B. 2022. Minimally invasive biomarkers in human and non-human primate evolutionary biology: Tools for understanding variation and adaptation. American Journal of Human Biology 2022(34):e23811. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23811.
- Pontzer H and the IAEA DLW Database Team (incl. Urlacher SS). 2021. Daily energy expenditure through the human life course. Science 373:808-812. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe5017.
- Urlacher SS, Snodgrass JJ, Dugas LR, Madimenos FC, Sugiyama LS, Liebert MA, Joyce CJ, Terán E, Pontzer H. 2021. Childhood daily energy expenditure does not decrease with market integration and is not related to adiposity in Amazonia. The Journal of Nutrition 195(3):695-704. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxaa361.
- Urlacher SS, Ellison PT, Sugiyama LS, Pontzer H, Eick G, Liebert MA, Cepon-Robins TJ, Gildner TE, Snodgrass JJ. 2018. Tradeoffs between immune function and childhood growth among Amazonian forager-horticulturalists. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(17):e3914-3921. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1717522115.