Born in Poland, studied biology at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. received a doctorate in anthropology 1976 and the higher doctorate in 1981.
Heavily involved in "Solidarity" movement was arested in 1981 and exiled in 1984.
Held academic positions at the University of Texas at Austin (3 yrs), University of Cape Town (5 years), University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (5 years).
Since 1996 is Wood Jones Professor of Anthropological and Comparative Anatomy at The University of Adelaide, since 2009 an Adjunct Professor of Archaeology at the Flinders University and since 2016 a permanent academic guest at the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Worked as an archaeologist, anthropologist and anatomist.
Contributed seven books/monographs and 350 book chapters/journal articles to these fields and also to jurisprudence due to the work as an expert witness.
Appeared in courts in NSW, SA, Qld and NT. International Fellow in the Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity, University of Oxford and Center for Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zürich.
In 2002 received a title Professor of Biological Sciences from the State President of the Republic of Poland.
The most recent books: The Dynamic Human, with Arthur Saniotis (2016 Bentham Science), The Hobbit Trap (2nd edition 2010, Left Coast Press, California)