Headshot of Dr. Venkataraman in the field. He is wearing a fur-edged hood with snow-covered mountains in the background.

Vivek Venkataraman

PhD

Positions

Assistant Professor

Faculty of Arts, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology

Contact information

Email

vivek.venkataraman@ucalgary.ca

Web presence

Lab website

Phone number

Office: 403.220.2665

Location

Office: ES852
Lab: ES704

Preferred method of communication

E-mail

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Funding

Learning opportunities

Background

Educational Background

PhD Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Dartmouth College, 2016

BA Physics & Philosophy, University of Chicago, 2007

Biography

Dr. Vivek Venkataraman earned his bachelor's degree in 2007 from the University of Chicago (Physics and Philosophy, with Honors). He then earned his PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Dartmouth College, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse. 

In 2021 Dr. Venkataraman joined the University of Calgary as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, where he is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the Human Evolutionary Energetics Laboratory. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Hunter-Gatherer Research.

Research

Areas of Research

Human evolution, human behaviour, non-human primates

My lab’s research focuses on the evolution of the human species: how did humans come to look and behave the way we do? We use a variety of techniques and methodologies to measure behaviour and physiology. Our lab is heavily fieldwork-oriented and comparative, emphasizing ethnographic studies of small-scale human societies and behavioural studies of nonhuman primate populations to better understand the selective pressures that have shaped our lineage. 

Participation in university strategic initiatives

Human dynamics in a changing world

Infections, inflammation and chronic diseases

One health

Courses

Course number Course title Semester
ANTH 311 Primate Social Behaviour
ARKY 617 Theory and its Application in Biological Anthropology
ANTH 445 Behaviour and Ecology of Small-Scale Societies

Projects

Orang Asli Health and Lifeways Project (OAHeLP)

I am the co-PI of the Orang Asli Health and Lifeways Project (OAHeLP), a systematic and comparative study of biology, health, behavior, and culture among the Orang Asli, the Indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia. OAHeLP a consortium of researchers in the biological and social sciences with current research foci on the rise of chronic non-infectious diseases over time due to rapidly changing environments.

Indigenous Breakaway Dynamics and Health in Malaysia

Funded by the New Frontiers in Research Fund of Canada.

Early life effects on later life biological outcomes: evolutionary and molecular mechanisms

With the National Science Foundation, USA

Publications

  • Integrating the Thrifty Genotype and Evolutionary Mismatch Hypotheses to understand variation in cardiometabolic disease risk. Brassington, L., Arner, A.M., Watowich, M.M., Damstedt, J., Ng, K.S., Lim, Y.A., Venkataraman, V.V., Wallace, I.J., Kraft, T.S. and Lea, A.J.. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 12(1). 214-226. (2024)
  • The ecological and social context of women’s hunting in small-scale societies. Hoffman, J., Farquharson, K. and Venkataraman, V.V.. Hunter Gatherer Research, 7(1-2). 1-31. (2023)
  • Hunter-gatherer residential mobility and the marginal value of rainforest patches. Venkataraman, V.V., Kraft, T.S., Dominy, N.J. and Endicott, K.M.. Proceedings of the National academy of Sciences, 114(12). 3097-3102. (2017)
  • The energetics of uniquely human subsistence strategies. Kraft, T.S., Venkataraman, V.V., Wallace, I.J., Crittenden, A.N., Holowka, N.B., Stieglitz, J., Harris, J., Raichlen, D.A., Wood, B., Gurven, M. and Pontzer, H.. 374(6575). eabf0130. (2021)
  • Orang Asli Health and Lifeways Project (OA HeLP): a cross-sectional cohort study protocol. Wallace, I.J., Lea, A.J., Lim, Y.A., Chow, S.K., bin Mohd Sayed, I., Ngui, R., Shaffee, M.T.H., Ng, K.S., Nicholas, C., Venkataraman, V.V. and Kraft, T.S. BMJ open, 12(9). e058660. (2022)

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