Justyna Miszkiewicz wins Pollitzer Travel Award

The American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA) run the competition annually. The winner is awarded $500 which they are to use to enable them to attend the AAPA conference, this year being held in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The competition is named in honour of William S Pollitzer who was a human biologist and a Darwin Lifetime Achievement Awardee.

This year applicants were asked to convince the US president and congressional leaders why the next federal budget should include additional funding for physical anthropology. Justyna’s paper was entitled “How Evolutionary Medicine can help us battle obesity and type 2 diabetes”. She encouraged a collaboration between physical anthropologists and clinicians.

This is the second time that Justyna has won this highly competitive prize. When asked about her success Justyna said, ‘I was delighted to hear the news! I am a huge proponent of explaining certain human conditions by using modern evolutionary biology framework, so to receive this award for my essay is a fab achievement. The money, of course, is also a great help!’

We’re all really proud of Justyna and look forward to hearing more about her time at the AAPA conference.

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