# George J. Armelagos

George J. Armelagos (May 22, 1936 – May 15, 2014) was an American anthropologist, and Goodrich C. White Professor of Anthropology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Armelagos significantly impacted the field of physical anthropology and biological anthropology. His work has provided invaluable contributions to the theoretical and methodological understanding human disease, diet and human variation within an evolutionary context. Relevant topics include epidemiology, paleopathology, paleodemography, bioarchaeology, evolutionary medicine, and the social interpretations of race, among others.
Armelagos is regarded as one of the founders of paleopathology and nutritional anthropology.

## Early life and education

Armelagos was the son of Greek immigrants and he was born in Lincoln Park, Michigan. He received a B.A. with honors in Anthropology from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 1958. He then entered the Medical School at Michigan-Ann Arbor (1958), transferred a year later into the Rackham Graduate School in Anthropology at Michigan (1959), where he met Jack Kelso. He would later follow Kelso to the Anthropology Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder where he received both his M.A. (1963) and Ph.D. (1968) degrees. It was at Colorado that he formulated his early ideas the nature of disease and the need for a bio-cultural approach to explain the relationship between the evolution of disease and the human response to it.
Upon graduating from the University of Colorado, Armelagos taught at the University of Utah (1965–1968) and was then hired at the University of Massachusetts, where he aided in the creation of the Ph.D. program in Anthropology.

## Career

During his 22-year career at the University of Massachusetts, Armelagos would train over a dozen anthropologists that would themselves contribute to research in human variation and adaptation, paleopathology, and skeletal biology and hold high ranking positions in the major associations for the discipline. He chaired Section H (Anthropology), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)(1997), and was President of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (1987–1989). His graduate students included Owen Lovejoy, John Lallo, Ann Magennis, Rebecca Huss-Ashmore, Dennis van Gerven, Michael Blakey, Jerome Rose, Pamela Bumsted, David Carlson, Lesley Rankin-Hill, Debra Martin, Anne Grauer, Alan H. Goodman, and Brenda Baker. While a professor at the University of Massachusetts he would receive many awards, including the University Distinguished Teacher (1973) and the Chancellor's Medalist (1980).
Retiring from Massachusetts in 1990 his career was far from over. He would serve three years as chair of the Anthropology Department at the University of Florida and affiliate curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History before taking his current position as the Goodrich C. White Professor of Anthropology at Emory University in Georgia where he has trained a whole new generation of anthropologists (Tad Schurr, Kristin Harper, Bethany Turner, Amber Campbell Hibbs, and Molly Zuckerman) working on understanding the evolution of disease from a biocultural approach receiving the George Cuttino Award for Mentoring (2002). He was the Viking Fund Medalist, Wenner Gren Foundation, (2005), considered one of anthropology's highest honors. Armelagos received the Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology, American Anthropological Association (2008) and the Charles Darwin Award for Lifetime Achievement to Biological Anthropology, American Association of Physical Anthropologists (2009). Armelagos published over a dozen books and monographs, has numerous book chapters and well over 250 journal articles.

## Death

He died at his home in Atlanta from pancreatic cancer. He was 77.

## Awards and recognition

* Chancellor's Lecture, University of Massachusetts, 1980
* Chancellor's Medalist, University of Massachusetts, 1980
* Distinguished Lecture, General Anthropology Division, American Anthropological Association. 1994
* Distinguished Lecture, Biological Anthropology Unit, American Anthropological Association, 2005
* Viking Fund Medal, 2005
* Frans Boas Award for Exemplary Service, 2008
* Charles Darwin Award for Lifetime Achievement, 2009
* Journal of Anthropological Research Distinguished Lecture, 2009