Geoffrey Ainsworth Harrison FRAI (8 June 1927 – 14 September 2017) was an English biological anthropologist who taught at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Early life and education

Harrison was born in

Teddington Teddington is an affluent suburb of London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Historically an Civil parish#ancient parishes, ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and situated close to the border with Surrey, the district became ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, on 8 June 1927. He received a 1st class degree from

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, where he read natural sciences. At Cambridge, he became interested in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

after attending a lecture on ''

Australopithecus ''Australopithecus'' (, ; or (, ) is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genera ''Homo'' (which includes modern humans), ''Paranthropus'', and ''Kenyanthropus'' evolved from some ''Aus ...

'' by paleontologist

Robert Broom Robert Broom Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (30 November 1866 6 April 1951) was a British- South African medical doctor and palaeontologist. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his DSc in 1905 from the University ...

. He received his

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the University of Oxford for his work on the adaptation of mice to warm environments, which he conducted under the supervision of

Joseph Weiner Joseph Sidney Weiner FRCP FRAI (29 June 1915 – 13 June 1982) was a South African-born British human biologist and environmental physiologist. He was influential and among other things helped expose the Piltdown hoax. He was President of the ...

Academic career

Harrison's first academic position was as a lecturer at the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

, where he studied

skin pigmentation Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is largely the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents), and in ...

. In 1963, he joined the faculty at Oxford as Reader in Physical Anthropology, where he was appointed Professor of Biological Anthropology in 1976. As a faculty member at Oxford, he was noted for his central role in the founding of the Human Sciences degree. He also helped to establish Oxford's Diploma in Human Biology, the Department of Biological Anthropology (later the Institute of Biological Anthropology), and the MSc in Human Biology. He retired from Oxford in 1994, though he continued to write and conduct research for an additional 20 years. He received the

Huxley Memorial Medal The Huxley Memorial Medal and Lecture is a lecture and associated medal that was created in 1900 by the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland to honour the anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in th ...

from the

Royal Anthropological Institute The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

in 1987 for his work 'Social Heterogeneity and Biological Variation' although no papers on this are held by the institute.

Professional affiliations

Harrison was president of the

from 1969 to 1970. He was also chair of the

Society for the Study of Human Biology ''Annals of Human Biology'' is a bimonthly academic journal that publishes Review journal, review articles on human population biology, nature, development and causes of human variation. It is published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Society ...

and of the

Biosocial Society Biosocial can refer to: * Biosocial behavior * Biosocial criminology * Sociobiology Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthrop ...

, as well as a member of many learned societies.

Death

Harrison died in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, England, on 14 September 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Geoffrey Ainsworth 1927 births 2017 deaths English anthropologists People from Teddington Fellows of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Presidents of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Academics of the University of Oxford Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Liverpool Alumni of the University of Oxford Physical anthropologists