A. Roberto Frisancho
| A. Roberto Frisancho | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 4, 1939 Cusco |
| Nationality | Perú |
| Fields | biological anthropologist |
| Institutions | University of Michigan |
| Known for | developmental human adaptation |
A. Roberto Frisancho is a biological anthropologist and the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. He is the 2008 recipient of the Franz Boas Distinguished Achievement Award in Anthropology bestowed by the American Human Biology Association. He is best known for his work on developmental human adaptation to extreme environments such as high altitudes, growth, anthropometry and evaluation of nutritional status. Specifically, he advanced the hypothesis and demonstrated that the origin of adult variability of biological phenotypic traits are function of the effects and adaptations to environmental conditions that the organism makes during the developmental stage. Within this conceptual framework, he has contributed numerous papers on bioenergetics, the nutrition and developmental determinants of pre-natal and post-natal growth including teenage pregnancy.In 2013, he received the Charles Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed by the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.
Frisancho was born on February 4, 1939 in Cusco Perú, speaking both Spanish and Quechua as a child. He attended the Tourist Guide School of Cusco, Perú and worked as a tour guide in Cusco and Machu Picchu. That job allowed Frisancho to develop an interest in anthropology and expand his linguistic skills and become fluent in multiple languages (including Spanish, Quechua, English, French and Portuguese). Later in 1962 he graduated with a Bachelor in Humanities from the National University of San Antonio Abad of Cusco, Perú. Upon graduating, he married Hedy G. Moscoso and had two sons, Roberto Javier and Juan Frisancho. In 1963 he won a Fulbright fellowship and went to Pennsylvania State University to study biological anthropology. During that time, he cultivated his interest in physiological, cultural, and developmental adaptations to extreme environments such as high altitude, cold, heath, under-nutrition and over-nutrition.
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