December Health Notes

December 20, 2007

AUSTIN, Texas — Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin are available to discuss health issues ranging from human evolution to health communication.

EVOLUTIONARY HEALTH

John Kappelman, professor of anthropology
Kappelman is part of an international team of researchers who discovered a 500,000-year-old human fossil believed to have the oldest case of tuberculosis.
Contact: John Kappelman, 512-471-0055, jkappelman@mail.utexas.edu

Liza Shapiro, associate professor of anthropology
Shapiro is co-author of a new study revealing the human spine in females evolved differently in order to alleviate back pressure from the weight of carrying a baby. The study appears in the Dec. 13 issue of Nature.
Contact: Liza Shapiro, 512-471-4206, liza.shapiro@mail.utexas.edu

HEALTH COMMUNICATION

LeeAnn Kahlor, assistant professor of advertising, director of Public Understanding of Science and Health (PUSH)
Kahlor researches how people communicate health and environmental risk issues, with an emphasis on how people process information.
Contact: LeeAnn Kahlor, 512-471-8498, kahlor@mail.utexas.edu

Michael Mackert, assistant professor of advertising, director of PUSH
Mackert researches health literacy, especially the best ways to create health messages to reach low health-literate populations using digital and traditional media.
Contact: Michael Mackert, 512-471-8558, mackert@mail.utexas.edu

Pat Stout, professor of advertising, director of PUSH
Stout studies the effectiveness of health-promotion messages and the use of social marketing.
Contact: Pat Stout, 512-471-8152, pstout@mail.utexas.edu

For more information, contact: Jennifer McAndrew, public affairs specialist, College of Liberal Arts, 512-232-4730.