Shelby Pirtle

Biography

Shelby Pirtle is a human biologist originally from Austin, Texas. Before coming to Notre Dame, she received her MA in Anthropology from the City University of New York Graduate Center focusing on human cold adaptation and skeletal biology. Her PhD work focuses on brown adipose tissue as a means of coping with the extreme cold of arctic environments. Her fieldwork, in arctic Finland, explores how arctic environments shape the cultural and biological toolkit humans use to cope with both extreme cold and extreme fluctuations in seasonal photoperiods. She hopes to apply this knowledge to better understand human adaptation and contribute to our understanding of human health.