Fifty Years of Research From the Human Biology Association

Le résumé fourni par la source

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

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.