Cynthia Beall, PhD

Distinguished University Professor Emerita
Sarah Idell Pyle Professor of Anthropology
College of Arts and Sciences
Co-Director
Center for Research on Tibet
College of Arts and Sciences
Elected Member
National Academy of Sciences
Elected Member
American Philosophical Society
Elected Member
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellow
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Member of the Board of Directors
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Editor-in-Chief
Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
Member of the Editorial Board
American Journal of Human Biology: High Altitude, Medicine, and Biology

Cynthia M. Beall is a biological anthropologist whose special interests are human growth and development, aging, human adaptability and medical ecology. She previously researched growth and development and infant morbidity/mortality in Andean populations, high altitude hypoxia and aging in Nepal and Bolivia, and physical activity and fitness and aging in Nepal. 

Beall’s current research in Tibet is on high-altitude human adaptability, aging and diet.

Watch an interview with Professor Beall on “ScienceLives”

C. Beall's Curriculum Vitae

 

Research Information

Research Interests

Dr. Beall is a physical anthropologist whose research focuses on human adaptation to high-altitude hypoxia, particularly the different patterns of adaptation exhibited by Andean, Tibetan, and East African highlanders. Her current research deals with the genetics of adaptive traits and evidence for natural selection, the role of nitric oxide in oxygen delivery at high altitudes, and with the human ecology of high-altitude Tibetan nomads

Awards and Honors

Member
2013
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Recipient, Raymond Peral Award
2013
Human Biology Association
John Simon Guggenheim Fellow
2011
Recipient, Franz Boas Distinguished Achievement Award
2009
Human Biology Association
Member
2001
American Philosophical Society
Fellow
1997
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Member
1996
National Academy of Sciences

Professional Memberships

Editor-in-Chief, Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
Board of Directors, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Member, AAAS Governance Modernization Committee
Member, National Academy of Sciences Modernization Committee
Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Member, American Association of Biological Anthropologists
Member, American Physiological Society
Member, Human Biology Association
Member, International Society for Evolution, Medicine and Public Health
Member, International Society for Mountain Medicine
Member, National Academy of Sciences
Member, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Council

Presentations

2020 Detecting Past and Ongoing Selection in Tibetan Populations., UCSD School of Medicine, March 11,

2019 Symposium on Evolution, Medicine and Public Health Symposium, Dartmouth College, September 21, 2019. Evolution and the diagnosis of anemia.

2018 Sesquicentennial symposium at Wayne State University, September 13, 2018

Education

Bachelor of Arts
Biology
University of Pennsylvania
1970
Master of Arts
Anthropology
The Pennsylvania State University
1972
PhD
Anthropology
The Pennsylvania State University
1976