Gregory Thomas Laden is an American

biological anthropologist Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a natural science discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly from ...

and science blogger.

Education

Born in 1958, Laden received his B.A. from the

University of the State of New York The University of the State of New York (USNY, ) is the state governmental umbrella organization that oversees all educational institutions, including schools, libraries, and museums in New York State. It is governed by the Board of Regents. D ...

's Regents College program in 1984, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1987 and 1992, respectively, where he was advised by

Irven DeVore Irven DeVore (October 7, 1934 – September 23, 2014) was an anthropologist and evolutionary biologist, and Curator of Primatology at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. He headed Harvard's Department of Anthropolo ...

Career

Laden has taught at multiple institutions, including, but not limited to, Harvard, the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

, and

Century College Century College is a public community college in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. It is a member of the Minnesota State system. It was founded in 1967 as Lakewood State Junior College and in 1996 merged with Northeast Metro Technical College to bec ...

. In 1999, when he was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota, he co-authored a study in ''

Current Anthropology ''Current Anthropology'' is a peer-reviewed anthropology academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press for the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Founded in 1959 by the anthropologist Sol Tax1907-1995. ''Curren ...

'' that found that the practice of humans cooking food evolved because it allowed them to cook vegetables. He published a blog, "Greg Laden's Blog", on

ScienceBlogs ScienceBlogs was an invitation-only blog network and virtual community that operated initially for almost 12 years, from 2006 to 2017. It was created by Seed Media Group to enhance public understanding of science. Each blog had its own theme, spe ...

, where he focused on public controversies regarding multiple scientific topics, including

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

and

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

References

1958 births Living people American anthropologists Science bloggers 21st-century science writers University of Minnesota faculty Harvard University alumni USNY Regents College alumni Physical anthropologists {{US-anthropologist-stub