One President Elect and three Council members need to be elected in 2025. Two Council members will be elected by the ISEMPH membership, and one will be appointed by the Executive Committee and the Council, in order to guarantee for diversity among the Council members in terms of gender, geographic distribution, and scientific discipline.
Voting will be open until April 30, but please vote now if possible. The nominations committee has recommended and the Council has approved the below candidates for the ballot. Only one candidate for President is listed because it was concluded that Joe Alcock is such a strong contender that it would not be feasible to get someone else to agree to be on the ballot. Chelsea Landolin has graciously agreed to continue her term as Treasurer until 2027. Jenny Tung, Michael Muehlenbein and Gillian Bentley are completing their terms of service on Council, Michelle Blyth, Bernard Crespi and Alexandre Ferraro continue on Council until 2027.
Information on the candidates is below.
To vote, use the link in the email you received about the election.
- President Elect
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Joe Alcock, MD - Emergency Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM, USA
About Joe Alcock – author of the Evolution Medicine blog – EvolutionMedicine - With a 25-year career in academic emergency medicine, I have dedicated myself to teaching medical students and residents at the University of New Mexico. My passion for evolution in health and disease began earlier when I discovered the work of Profet, Ewald, Haig and Nesse as a graduate student at Cornell’s Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. After earning my medical degree at UCLA and completing my residency at the University of New Mexico, I designed and taught a popular course on evolutionary medicine for UNM undergraduate and graduate students, and I spearheaded an evolutionary medicine elective for medical students at the UNM School of Medicine that is now in its 17th year. My research has focused on the human relationship with the microbiome, using an evolutionary lens of conflict and cooperation. Additionally, I study the clinical implications of evolutionary medicine for sepsis and critical care. With the help of many collaborators, I am heavily invested in scientific outreach using podcasts, web articles, video shorts and interdisciplinary conferences to bring evolutionary medicine concepts to a broad audience. My work in these areas dovetails with the mission of the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, to build an even more vibrant interdisciplinary society and expand the field’s impact on medical education, research and practice.
- Council (vote for 2)
Adrian Jäggi, PhD
Professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Adrian Jäggi | Institute of Evolutionary Medicine (IEM) | UZH- As a biological anthropologist I’m fascinated by human variation and its evolutionary and ecological roots. The value of understanding human variation for medicine and public health fully dawned on me when I attended the inaugural ISEMPH meeting in 2015 and I have been an ISEMPH member ever since. Inspired by this, I taught my first ev med class at Emory University in 2017, and now regularly teach ev med to biology majors and medical students at the University of Zurich. Since 2019 I’ve also been serving as an associate editor for EMPH, where I’m currently guest-editing a special issue on mental health. I would be honored to serve the ISEMPH community, and as a council member I would strive to further broaden the impact of our work and to grow our field and the society.
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Lynnette Sievert, PhD
Professor at the Universiy of Massachusetts, Amherst MA, USA
https://sites.google.com/umass.edu/lynnette-leidy-sievert?usp=sharing
I did not attend the ISEMPH meetings for the first few years because I could not imagine how Evolutionary Medicine could fill an entire conference. I was wrong to think that. Now, I regularly attend the meetings, and I appreciate the breadth of the ISEMPH. I want to see that broad scope continue to be true each year. I teach Evolutionary Medicine each Fall semester, so the summer timing of the meeting is perfect. The ISEMPH strikes a good balance between clinically useful information and classroom friendly ideas. I would like to see that balance maintained.
Anuraag Bukkuri, PhD
Postdoc at University of Pittsburgh & Hillman Cancer Center, Woodbury MN, USA- https://sites.google.com/view/anuraag-bukkuri/
- Hi! I’m Anuraag Bukkuri, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the Hillman Cancer Center, and the Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine (CEBaM). My research combines theoretical, computational, and experimental approaches to 1) understand the mechanisms and role of whole-genome duplication in liver pathophysiology and cancer therapeutic resistance and 2) develop evolutionarily-informed treatment strategies to target these transitions and treat disease. With experience working across multiple countries and institutions—from mathematics and biology departments to medical schools and cancer centers—I have gained a deep understanding of the diversity of research cultures and the challenges involved in incorporating evolutionary perspectives into medical research. As an ISEMPH council member, I will aim to advance the integration of evolutionary principles into mainstream medical research and practice, ensuring that evolutionary thinking becomes a fundamental framework for understanding and treating disease. As an early career researcher with pedagogical experience in evolutionary medicine, I will work to expand our membership among early career scientists and develop initiatives to recruit and introduce students to the foundations of evolutionary medicine. Finally, as recent world events have shown, fostering scientific literacy among the public is critical to ensure a thriving biomedical research enterprise. As a professionally trained science writer, I will strive to communicate key principles of evolutionary medicine to the public and help raise awareness of and excitement for our field.
- Cynthia Beall, PhD
- Professor at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH, USA
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https://anthropology.case.edu/emeriti/cynthia-beall/
If elected to ISEMPH council, I would collaborate with Society members to advance our mission by enhancing communication through conferences, publications, and online forums. My goal is to support those applying evolutionary insights to medical research and practice and those using human health studies to inform evolutionary biology. My experience as ISEMPH’s first Treasurer, an author, a presenter at annual meetings, and past Editor-in-Chief of our journal gives me a broad perspective on the Society. I would be honored to continue contributing to ISEMPH as a member of the Council guiding its affairs.