Randolph M. Nesse

Randolph Martin Nesse (born July 10, 1948) is an American physician, scientist and author who is notable for his role as a founder of the field of evolutionary medicine and evolutionary psychiatry.

Education and career Nesse studied at Carleton College from 1966 to 1970. He went on to receive his M.D. at the University of Michigan Medical School in 1974 and carried out his medical residency at the same place. Nesse became an instructor in psychiatry at the University of Michigan in 1977 and became an assistant professor there in psychiatry in 1979. He became associate professor in psychiatry in 1985 and professor in psychiatry in 1993 at University of Michigan, where he was also a professor of psychology since 2001. Nesse became professor emeritus at Michigan at the end of 2013.

Since 2014, Nesse became professor of life sciences and ASU Foundation Professor at Arizona State University, where he became the Founding Director of the Center for Evolution and Medicine. He was previously a professor of psychiatry, professor of psychology and research professor at the University of Michigan where he led the Evolution and Human Adaptation Program and helped to establish one of the world's first anxiety disorders clinics and conducted research on neuroendocrine responses to fear.

Research Nesse's research on the evolution of aging led to a long collaboration with the evolutionary biologist George C. Williams. Their co-authored book, Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine, inspired fast growth of the field of evolutionary medicine. His subsequent research has focused on how natural selection shapes mechanisms that regulate pain, fever, anxiety, low mood, and why emotional disorders are so common. He also has written extensively about the evolutionary origins of moral emotions, and strategies for establishing evolutionary biology as a basic science for medicine. Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry applies the principles of evolutionary medicine to mental disorders.

Nesse was the initial organizer and second president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, and is currently the president of the International Society for Evolution, Medicine & Public Health. He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and an elected Fellow of the AAAS.