Ursula Cowgill

Who is Ursula Cowgill?

Ursula Moser Cowgill is a biologist and anthropologist who worked for Yale University, Dow Chemical Company and the University of Colorado during the second half of the 20th century. Her work includes studies of agricultural practices in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, seasons of birth in human beings, the relationship between cultural gender bias and infant mortality, and the possible role of selenium in reducing mortality from AIDS. She also looked after four pottos for many years and published a series of observations on their behaviour.

Cowgill earned a PhD from Iowa State University in 1956. Later she worked as an analytical chemist for the limnologist G. Evelyn Hutchinson. Her first journal articles, some published jointly with Hutchinson, appeared in the early 1960s.

Cowgill was living in Colorado as of 2003. In addition to her scientific research, she is an activist with the American Civil Liberties Union.