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CATALINA FERNÁNDEZ, PHD

Assistant Professor

Office:�� SO173�� | Phone: +1 561 297 1355 | Email:����cfernandez@fau.edu

Education

Ph.D., Anthropology, Indiana University, 2021. Minors: Nutritional Epidemiology; Food studies

M.A., Anthropology, Indiana University, 2017.

B.A., Anthropology, Universidad de Chile, 2011.

Courses Taught at Florida Atlantic University

ANT 2511 Introduction to Biological Anthropology

ANT 2511lL Introduction to Biological Anthropology Lab

ANT 3586 Human Evolution

ANG 3587 Graduate Seminar in Biological Anthropology

Research Interests

Nutritional Anthropology; Human Health and Disease; Evolutionary Medicine; Human

Ecology; Food and Cultural Change; Molecular Anthropology; Indigenous people; Latin America.

Bio

I’m a biological anthropologist with broad interests in the role of food and diet in human adaptation and evolution among contemporary populations. My research uses evolutionary and biocultural approaches, as well as mixed methods, to study how nutritional histories, subsistence strategies, and the environment shape genetic, non-genetic, and cultural adaptations across human populations. I’m particularly interested in questions related to the effects of global market integration on human health and well-being among rural and small-scale societies. I have experience working with rural and indigenous communities in Latin America on the topics of environmental and dietary adaptations, the nutrition transition, chronic diseases, and population genetics. My most recent research project focuses on the causes of variation in child growth trajectories among non-Western populations, aiming to better inform public health interventions using culturally and environmentally appropriate strategies.

I earned my bachelor an professional degree in biological Anthropology at Universidad de Chile and I worked in Chile as a consultant in archaeology and bioarcheology for several years before I moved to the US to pursue my M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Anthropology at Indiana University, Bloomington. After I graduated, I joined the Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, working as part of the .

Since January 2025, I have been an assistant professor at the Anthropology Department at ��������. I joined this department with the aim of starting a research program that focuses on the intersections among food security, food sovereignty, nutrition and health and wellbeing broadly defined. Particularly, I envision a major component of my research program to grow in a direction that addresses major challenges in our time, such as climate change and its effects on food and water insecurity, the displacement of communities, and chronic and infectious diseases.

Selected publications

2025 ��Bunce J, ������á�Ի��� Catalina & Revilla-Minaya C. “A causal model of human growth and its estimation using temporally sparse data”. Royal Society of Open Science 12 250084. doi.org/10.1098/rsos.250084

2020 ��������á�Ի��� Catalina. “Nutrition Transition and Health Outcomes Among Indigenous Populations of Chile.” Current Developments in Nutrition, 4(5). doi:10.1093/cdn/nzaa070.

2019 ��������á�Ի��� Catalina, Pfaff, M., Candia, P. & Aguilar, R. “Tradición y transformación de las huertas en los oasis del Desierto de Atacama”. En Ibarra, J.T., A. Barreau, J. Caviedes & N. Pessa (Eds.). Huertas familiares y comunitarias: cultivando soberanía alimentaria. Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.

2017 ��������á�Ի��� Catalina & AS. Wiley. "Rethinking the starch digestion hypothesis for AMY1 copy number variation in humans". American Journal of Physical Anthropology 163 (4): 645-657. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.23237.

2017 ��Cullin, JM & ������á�Ի��� Catalina. Response to “Ultraprocessed food consumption and risk of overweight and obesity: the University of Navarra Follow-Up (SUN) cohort study” [Letter to the editor]. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 105:4. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.116.149278.

2015 ��������á�Ի��� Catalina, Montalva NA, Arias M, Hevia M, Moraga ML & SV. Flores. “Lactase non-persistence and general patterns of dairy intake in Indigenous and Mestizo Chilean populations.” American Journal of Human Biology 28 (2): 213–21. doi10.1002/ajhb.22775

2014. ������á�Ի��� Catalina & SV. Flores. “Lactase persistence and dairy intake in Mapuche and Mestizo populations from southern Chile”. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 155:482–487. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.22594

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