Ruth Mace FBA (born 9 October 1961) is a British anthropologist , biologist , and academic. She specialises in the evolutionary ecology of human demography and life history , and phylogenetic approaches to culture and language evolution . Since 2004, she has been Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at University College London . ^{[1] [2]}

Early life and education [ edit ]

Mace was born on 9 October 1961 in London, England to David Mace and Angela Mace. She was educated at South Hampstead High School , an all-girls private school in South Hampstead , London, and at Westminster School , an independent school within the precincts of Westminster Abbey that has a mixed-sex sixth form . She studied zoology at Wadham College, Oxford , graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1983 and a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1987. ^[1] Her doctoral thesis was titled "The dawn chorus: Behavioural organisation in the great tit (Parus major)". ^[3]

Academic career [ edit ]

Having completed her doctorate, Mace began her academic career as a research fellow at Imperial College London ; she held a NERC Postdoctoral Fellowship . ^[4] Then, from 1989 to 1991, she was a lecturer in the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia . ^{[1] [4]}

In 1991, Mace moved to the Department of Anthropology of University College London : she was a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Lecturer from 1991 to 1999, and Reader in Human Evolutionary Ecology from 1999 to 2004. ^[4] In 1994, having met Mark Pagel at University College, the two co-authored "The Comparative Method in Anthropology", that used phylogenetic methods to analyse human cultures, pioneering a new field of science ? using evolutionary trees, or phylogenies, in anthropology, to explain human behaviour. ^[5]

In 2004, she was appointed Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology. ^[1] From 2005 to 2010, she was also Editor-in-Chief of Evolution and Human Behavior . ^[1] From 2018, she was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Evolutionary Human Sciences. ^[6] Since 2010, she has served as Head of Biological Anthropology at University College London. ^[4]

Personal life [ edit ]

Mace's partner is Mark Pagel , professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Reading. Together they have two sons. ^[1]

Honours [ edit ]

In 2003, Mace gave the Curl Lecture, a prize lectureship of the Royal Anthropological Institute . ^[7] In 2008, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. ^[8]

Selected works [ edit ]

• Milner-Gulland, E. J.; Mace, Ruth (1998). Conservation of Biological Resources: with case studies contributed by other authors . Oxford: Blackwell Science. ISBN   978-0865427389 .
• Mace, Ruth; Holden, Clare J.; Shennan, Stephen, eds. (2005). The Evolution of Cultural Diversity: A Phylogenetic Approach . London: UCL Press. ISBN   978-1844720996 .
• Gillian, Bentley; Mace, Ruth, eds. (2009). Substitute Parents: Biological and Social Perspectives on Alloparenting in Human Societies . New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN   978-1845451066 .

References [ edit ]