• Taylor S. Harman, Ph.D.

    Postdoctoral Researcher @ Vanderbilt University

  • About me!

    I am a Biological Anthropologist with broad training in human biology. I hold a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Syracuse University, and am currently appointed as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Vanderbilt University.

     

    My research projects thus far have incorporated physiological, epigenetic, and ethnographic components. I am interested in understanding humans as whole organisms, who are synergistically influenced by both biological and cultural factors.

     

    My Master's and Doctoral work both focused on the human adaptive response to high altitude. I remain deeply invested in human evolution, and my future goals include expanding my research agenda to include measures of health outcomes in the populations I study.

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    Taylor S. Harman
    Postdoctoral Researcher

    Anthropological Health & Data Science Lab
    Vanderbilt University
    Nasvhille, TN 37235
    taylor.harman@vanderbilt.edu

     

    Education

    2019 - 24 Ph.D. in Anthropology,

    Syracuse University
    2017 - 19 M.S. in Exercise Physiology,

    Syracuse University
    2014 - 17 B.S. in Molecular Biology,

    University of California San Diego
     

     

  • Current & Upcoming Research Projects

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    Oxygen Delivery Phenotypes in Andean versus Tibetan Highlanders

    Pheriche, Nepal & Cerro de Pasco, Peru

    Co-PI

     

    Putative stable microevolutionary changes in contemporary human populations. An exploration of the distinct pathways the human body can take to adapt to the same selective stressor.

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    Science as Storytelling: Self-perceptions vs Popular Representations of Sherpa People

    Khunde, Nepal

    Co-PI

     

    Ethnographic work exploring how Sherpa people perceive themselves, their abilities, and their biologies; contrasted with popular and scientific narratives written about them.

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    Social determinants of maternal health and birth outcomes

    United States of America

    Collaborator

     

    Exploring how maternal and infant health outcomes differ by racial groups in the United States, especially with respect to planned versus unplanned pregnanices using the nuMoM2b dataset.

  • Peer-Reviewed Publications

     Brutsaert, T. D., Harman, T. S., Bigham, A. W., Kalker, A., Jorgensen, K. C., Zhu, K. T., Steiner, B. C., Hawkins, E., Day, T. A., Kunwar, A. J., Thakur, N., Dhungel, S., Sherpa, N., & Holmström, P. K. (2024). Larger spleens and greater splenic contraction during exercise may be an adaptive characteristic of Nepali Sherpa at high-altitude. American Journal of Human Biology: The Official Journal of the Human Biology Council, e24090. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.24090

    Holmström, P. K., Harman,T. S., Kalker, A., Steiner, B., Hawkins, E., Jorgensen, K. C., Zhu, K. T.,Kunwar, A. J., Thakur, N., Dhungel, S., Sherpa, N., Day, T. A., Schagatay, E. K., Bigham, A. W., & Brutsaert, T. D. (2024). Differential splenic responses to hyperoxic breathing at high altitude in Sherpa and lowlanders. Experimental Physiology, EP091579. https://doi.org/10.1113/EP091579

    Childebayeva, A., Harman,T.S., Weinstein, J., Day, T.A., Brutsaert, T.D., Bigham, A.W. (2021).Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Changes Associated with High-Altitude Acclimatization During an Everest Base Camp Trek. Frontiers in Physiology.

    Lefferts, W.K.,DeBlois, J.P., Soriano, J.E., Mann, L., Rampuri, Z., Herrington, B., Thrall, S., Bird, J., Harman, T.S., Day, T.A. and Heffernan, K.S., (2020).Preservation of Neurovascular Coupling to Cognitive Activity in Anterior Cerebrovasculature During Incremental Ascent to High Altitude. High Altitude Medicine & Biology, 21(1), 20-27.

    Childebayeva, A., Harman,T.S., Weinstein, J., Goodrich, J., Dolinoy, D., Day, T. A., ... &Brutsaert, T. (2019). DNA methylation changes are associated with an incremental ascent to high altitude. Frontiers in Genetics, 10, 1062.

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