# About the HEB PhD ## expand\_more ## A Message From the Director of Graduate Studies ![Joe Henrich](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/heb.harvard.edu/files/oip.jpg) Welcome! Unique in the world, Harvard’s Department of Human Evolutionary Biology is built around a fundamental question: “What makes us human?” To address this question, we created a novel field that integrates insights, methods, and evidence from across the natural and social sciences. Together, we have constructed a broad evolutionary framework to explore our species’ deep history, genetics, physiology, anatomy, psychology, culture, and behavior. In our laboratories, spanning genetics, biomechanics, neurobiology, and microbiology, and our far-flung field sites, from the Congo Basin to the Fijian archipelago, our faculty, post-docs and students study an immense diversity of topics, ranging, for example, from the crucial interconnections between our cooking practices, microbiome and physiology to what the domestication of wolves into dogs can teach us about human brain evolution. Alongside our core questions related to what makes humans unique, many members of our department are also interested in why and how our unique evolutionary history matters for practical and policy issues. Key questions revolve around health, exercise, immunity, innovation, and the construction of more effective institutions. As a highly interdisciplinary enterprise focused on building a holistic picture of our species, we embrace and encourage diversity in all its forms and cultivate a free exchange of ideas. In our research, we integrate insights on contemporary biology, physiology, genetics, anatomy and behavior from around the globe and well back into our evolutionary past. In building our community of scientists, including our students, we actively seek to expand our diversity, seeking people from different backgrounds, countries, cultures, experience, and training. Together, such diversity builds what Professor Joe Henrich has called the Collective Brain, which drives more rapid innovation and deeper insight. It is at the heart of our approach to understand the human condition and all of its complex variation. If you come from an underrepresented background and are interested in HEB, we strongly encourage you to you contact us and consider applying! HEB is proud to continue a century-long tradition of training the future leaders in understanding humans from an evolutionary perspective. Our graduate students receive generous funding for their entire degree program and get hands-on training in teaching and both laboratory and field-based research. In addition to the extraordinary resources within the department, HEB graduate students also benefit from the unparalleled resources of Harvard University, including strong collaborations with departments such as Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Economics and Psychology as well as the Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School, Kennedy School and the Peabody Museum. \- *Joseph Henrich, Director of Graduate Students, Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology* **About the HEB Doctoral Degree** The objective of the PhD program in Human Evolutionary Biology is to provide students with comprehensive training necessary to address the question “How did evolution make humans the way they are?” Our interdisciplinary approach thus includes field and laboratory programs in many sub-disciplines including: - Reproductive endocrinology - Human behavioral biology and ecology - Ape behavioral ecology and biology - Human and primate paleobiology - Experimental biomechanics - Human physiology - Genetics and genomics of humans and primates - Developmental biology - Human and non-human primate cognition HEB welcomes PhD candidates from diverse backgrounds, including undergraduate degrees in biology or anthropology. HEB’s PhD program is typically six years. The first two years are a combination of classwork and research. Ordinarily, students define a PhD topic in the third year, and then finish by the sixth year. All HEB students receive five years of full funding, including tuition and stipend plus substantial departmental support for research. Training to teach is also an important component of the PhD. ## Current Graduate Students [### Aidan Murphy ](/people/aidan-murphy) PhD Candidate (G5) I'm interested in how brains evolve. Our lab uses canines to study breed-specific behaviors. We also use existing non-human primate data to investigate neuroanatomical differences that might contribute to cognitive/behavioral differences between species. ![A. Murphy](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/heb.harvard.edu/files/aidan_image.png?itok=aYiKAtRe) [### Alex Harris ](/people/alex-harris) PhD Candidate (G4) My research focuses on how energy balance and physical activity impact the female menstrual cycle and levels of reproductive hormones. To study this interaction, I work closely with female athletes in Boston and subsistence farmers in Rwanda. Prior to... ![Alex Harris](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/heb.harvard.edu/files/alex_harris.jpeg?itok=C5kj40Q-) [### Amar Sarkar ](/people/amar-sarkar) PhD Student (G5) Amar completed master's degrees in psychology at the University of Oxford (Brasenose College) and neuroscience at the University of Cambridge (Trinity College). He also worked for several years as a research assistant in the Department of Experimental... ![Profile picture of Amar Sarkar wearing blue plaid shirt with trees in the background](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-07/Amar%20Sarkar_Photo_update.jpg?itok=TDhU_I9k) [### Annabel Perry ](/people/annabel-perry) Graduate Candidate (G4) Reich Lab Annabel's research interests include the genetic basis of complex behavior. She has expertise in using computational tools to analyse large genomics datasets. ![profile picture of Annabel Perry wearing black dress and smiling](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-07/Annabel%20Perry%20Photo%20update.png?itok=fGy9YFaT) [### Ciara Sypherd ](/people/ciara-sypherd)PhD student (G4) Ciara earned their B.S.E. in aerospace engineering and B.S. in astrobiology and biogeosciences from Arizona State University in 2020. Ciara is currently a graduate student in bioengineering at Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences... ![ciara sypherd](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2026-01/sypherd.jpg?itok=mjEAWGwG) [### Daniel Tabin ](/people/daniel-tabin) PhD Student (G5) Daniel Tabin is a fifth-year PhD student studying human history through genetics in David Reich's lab. ![Daniel Tabin](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/heb.harvard.edu/files/img_0768_1.jpg?itok=mWxqPKUJ) [### Dimitar Ivanov ](/people/dimitar-ivanov) PhD Student (G1) I am interested in the genetic underpinnings that make humans unique and especially the coding and regulatory causes for our expanded brains. ![PhD Student Dimitar Ivanov profile picture wearing a white tee shirt and smiling](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-08/Dimitar%20Ivanov_photo.JPG?itok=Lkp8rcvT) [### Emmanuel Aoron ](/people/emmanuel-aoron) PhD Student (G2) ![Emmanuel Aoron](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/heb.harvard.edu/files/emmanuel_aoron_copy.png?itok=60Gf3Gep) [### Grace Rubin ](/people/grace-rubin) PhD Student (G4) ![Grace Rubin](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/heb.harvard.edu/files/grace_headshot.jpg?itok=ZOwlzJjW) [### Javier Maravall López ](/people/javier-maravall-lopez) Graduate Student (G3) Javier graduated from the University of Barcelona with bachelor's degrees in mathematics and philosophy and he holds master's degrees in mathematics, history, and mathematical and computational engineering. Prior to joining the Reich lab in the HEB... ![Javier Maravilla López Photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/heb.harvard.edu/files/javiermaravalllopezphoto.png?itok=yK7CnMD6) [### Joel Ramirez ](/people/joel-ramirez) PhD Candidate (G5) ![Joel Ramirez](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/heb.harvard.edu/files/joel.jpeg?itok=fGmli4A8) [### John Kahumbu ](/people/john-kahumbu) PhD Student (G2) ![John headshot photo of him smiling while sitting on a stone in the country landscape, wearing a blue and white flannel long-sleeve shirt and khakis, carrying a black field-site bag, and sporting long black hair](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2024-10/John-K.jpg?itok=mee8Khpl) [### Lily Fornof ](/people/lily-fornof) PhD Candidate (G5) I study how motherhood shapes the social behavior of females using wild bonobos as a model organism. I specifically look at patterns of female sociality and social relationship formation. ![profile picture of Lily Fornof smiling in front of a boulder covered in grasses](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-07/Lily_Fornof_Photo_update.jpeg?itok=6SQFphb8) [### Maisie Ettinger ](/people/maisie-ettinger) PhD Student (G2) Maisie received her BSc in Zoology from the University of Exeter and went on to complete a Master's in Tropical Forest Ecology at Imperial College London. During her Master's, she used genetic methods to investigate and quantify the diet of orangutans in... ![Maisie headshot photo of her smiling in a tall grass wetland, wearing a black tee shirt and glasses, carrying a red field-site bag, and sporting long curly blonde hair](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2024-10/Maise%20Ettinger.JPG?itok=i33K3EHT) - Previous page chevron\_left - [1](?page=0 "Current page") - [2](?page=1 "Go to page 2") - [ Next page chevron\_right ](?page=1 "Go to next page")