JULY 15, 2003 | The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (UAF) has invited UAMS faculty and staff to a symposium Aug. 14-15 about the human diet.

The symposium, “The Evolution of Human Diet: the Known, the Unknown and the Unknowable,” will bring together researchers from around the nation.

“A lot of what the public assumes is known about diet is not, and much of that may, in fact, be unknowable,” Peter Ungar, UAF professor of anthropology and organizer of the symposium, said in the release. “The public needs information to distinguish claims supported by scientific research from those based on conjecture,” he said.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is sponsoring the two-day event at the University of Arkansas Poultry Science Center in with a $40,000 grant. The public is invited, free of charge, with a special invitation extended to UAMS employees. No registration is required.

Among the 13 presenters are eight professors of anthropology, including Ungar. Barry Sears, author of the popular diet book, The Zone, will make a presentation as will Boyd Eaton, M.D., of Emory University, and Mark Teaford, Ph.D., a professor of functional anatomy and evolution at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

See more information about the workshop.

Ungar said he hopes the symposium will provide the opportunity for cross-discipline collaboration among the researchers. “There are many researchers examining the human diet and its evolution, but they’ve taken different approaches, and they come from different professional circles. As a result, they’re often not as familiar with each other’s work as they ought to be. We hope the symposium will bring about a dynamic interaction that may move the field forward,” he said.

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More information: http://www.sloandietworkshop.org/