Biography

Stephanie Schnorr is a biological anthropologist who studies human diet, digestion, and gut microbiome in the framework of human evolution. Schnorr is especially interested in understanding how humans came to acquire large and complex brains along with what factors allowed these traits to progress over time. She does this by studying the coalescence of dietary behaviors, physical adaptations, and the gut microbiome alongside human occupation of particular environments.

Schnorr is also a member of UNLV’s Nutrition and Reproduction Lab, which is located at a field site in Tanzania, East Africa among a nomadic population of hunter-gatherers. The research explores the cultural dimensions of kin investment, attachment theory (specifically models of multiple attachments), the behavioral and nutritional links of cooperative breeding, life history theory, the evolution of childhood, food sharing, and the evolution of the human diet.

Her work is published in a number of high-impact academic journals and has been highlighted in numerous media outlets including Scientific American, Wired, National Geographic, and The New York Times.