The character arc of Robert Sapolsky
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 6 April 1957 in Brooklyn. Between then and now sit a Harvard degree in 1978, an eighteen month baboon study in Kenya begun in the late 1970s, a Rockefeller doctorate in 1984, a MacArthur Fellowship in 1987, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers in 1994, A Primate's Memoir in 2002, Behave in 2017 and Determined in 2023. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Robert Sapolsky?
Twenty five summers with the same troop.
He grew up in Brooklyn and took a degree in biological anthropology at Harvard in 1978. Then, in his early twenties, he went to Kenya and spent eighteen months studying a single troop of wild baboons. He kept going back, every summer, for roughly twenty five years, eight to ten hours a day for about four months at a time, until the early 1990s. That is an enormous amount of a life spent watching one group of animals.
The point of it was not the baboons on their own. Baboons in that setting spend their days doing very little hunting and a great deal of social manoeuvring, which makes them an unusually good model for a primate whose diseases come from long running stress rather than from predators. He took his doctorate in neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University in 1984 and was given a MacArthur Fellowship in 1987.
He is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor at Stanford, with appointments in biology, neurology and neurosurgery, and a research associate with the National Museums of Kenya. Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers came in 1994 and explains, in ordinary language, what chronic stress does to a body. A Primate's Memoir followed in 2002, Behave in 2017 and Determined in 2023, which argues that there is no free will, a claim philosophers and other scientists dispute at length. He received the McGovern Award in 2007 and the Carl Sagan Prize in 2008.
The moments
Robert Sapolsky's timeline.
The 1970s
Biological anthropology
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Anthropology first, which is why the fieldwork came before the laboratory.
Graduate school, or Kenya
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: go and live with them, taken, or straight to a doctorate. He returned every summer for roughly twenty five years, and every book on the line is built on what he saw there.
Eighteen months in Kenya
Milestone, and it changed everything. Twenty one years old, alone in a valley, watching one troop of baboons.
The 1980s
A Rockefeller doctorate
Milestone, and it changed everything. A doctorate in the hormones behind what he had been watching.
Every summer, for decades
Milestone, and it changed everything. Eight to ten hours a day, four months a year, for a quarter of a century.
A MacArthur Fellowship
Milestone, and it changed everything. The fellowship nobody applies for, at thirty.
The 1990s
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
Milestone, and it changed everything. What long running stress does to a body, explained so anybody can follow it.
The 2000s
A Primate's Memoir
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The Kenya years, written as a memoir rather than as science.
Two prizes in two years
Milestone. One prize for the science, one for making it readable.
The 2010s
Behave
Milestone, and it changed everything. Forty years of work in one volume, running from a second before an act to a million years before it.
The 2020s
Determined
Milestone, and it changed everything. His argument that there is no free will. Philosophers and other scientists dispute it at length.
The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is a plain understanding of what long running stress does to a body, carried out of a Kenyan valley and handed to people who are unlikely to see a baboon.
What he wrote
Books by Robert Sapolsky
- 1994
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
What long running stress does to a body, explained so that anybody can follow it.
- 2002
A Primate's Memoir
The Kenya years written as a memoir rather than as science, and funnier than either.
- 2017
Behave
The biology of humans at our best and worst. Forty years of work in one volume.
- 2023
Determined
His argument that there is no free will. Philosophers and other scientists dispute it at length.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His put twenty five years into watching one thing closely before he had the answer. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Robert Sapolsky: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What is Robert Sapolsky's character arc?
Why did Robert Sapolsky study baboons?
What is Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky?
What is Determined by Robert Sapolsky?
Where does Robert Sapolsky teach?
Has Robert Sapolsky won any awards?
What is Behave by Robert Sapolsky?
Where does this timeline of Robert Sapolsky's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- Robert Sapolsky, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 1987 fellows.
- Publisher records for Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, A Primate's Memoir, Behave and Determined.