Parkes Foundation

- promoting the study of biosocial sciences -

The Geoffrey Harrison Prize Lecture

Professor Geoffrey A. Harrison (1927-2017)

Geoffrey Harrison is one of the most important figures in 20th century Human Biology. He was a key member of the pioneering group of scientists who developed the new Human Biology from the old Physical Anthropology along with Joe Weiner, Derek Roberts, Jim Tanner, Arthur Mourant, Nigel Barnicot and Kenneth Oakley. The expertise and diversity of this group of visionary scientists allowed them to shape the development of human biology over the next 50 years as a discipline in which biology, behaviour and social context worked together to define the human species. Geoffrey Harrison was for many years Professor and Head of the Department of Biological Anthropology at the University of Oxford.

The Prize Lecture is awarded annually in Geoffrey Harrison’s honour to persons who have made a substantial and sustained contribution to the study of the human biology of living populations and especially biosocial sciences.

Past Geoffrey Harrison Lectures

Professor Melissa Parker (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), 'Ebola: A Biosocial Journey', November 2017, Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Professor Nick Mascie-Taylor (University of Cambridge), 'From Genes to Latrines: A Biosocial Journey', November 2018, Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Professor Thomas Leatherman (Department of Anthropology, University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, USA), 'Social Change, Human Biology and Shifting
Biocultural Perspectives in the Andes', November 2019, Oxford Brookes University

Professor Stanley Ulijaszek (University of Oxford), 'Nutritional Anthropology', February 2023, University of Oxford