Michael A. Little

Beginning with a study of cold adaptation in the Peruvian Andes in 1962, Little went on to conduct studies of high-altitude adaptation to hypoxia and cold in Quechua-speaking natives for about 15 years. In the 1970s, he began collaborating with other scientists on ecological research of Turkana pastoral nomads from northwest Kenya. This 20-year project incorporated grazing-lands ecologists, cultural anthropologists, biological anthropologists, and biomedical scientists in multidisciplinary field investigations of the environment, biology, health, and behavior of the Turkana people. During these periods of research, he was quite active in international programs associated with the National Academy of Sciences, UNESCO, and the International Council of Scientific Unions (both for Biology and Anthropology). For the past two decades or so, he has pursued historical and biographical investigations into the history of biological anthropology and the history of science.