Charles L Nunn

Charles Nunn is the Gosnell Family Professor of Global Health and Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University.  He is also the Director of the Triangle Center for Evolutionary Medicine (TriCEM).  Nunn uses evolutionary approaches to understand and improve human and animal health.  He and his research group investigate the ecology and evolution of infectious disease, climate change and health, and evolutionary medicine.  Nunn addresses these questions using phylogenetic methods, mathematical modeling, and through fieldwork in Madagascar, Kenya and other locations.  In his current research in Madagascar, Nunn and his team are investigating the early stages of pandemics by modeling the connections between humans and animals, among people within a community, and between communities.  They are also investigating a wide range of existing and new infectious diseases in this system, the effects of climate change on health, and the role of agricultural crops, particularly vanilla, on human health and disease.  Nunn is the author of Infectious Diseases of Primates: Behavior, Ecology and Evolution and The Comparative Approach in Evolutionary Anthropology and Biology.  He is currently writing a textbook on Evolutionary Medicine and Global Health.