Dr. Robert Jurmain graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Anthropology and Harvard with a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology. He was a professor emeritus at San Jose State University from 1975 to 2004.

He taught courses in all major branches of physical anthropology, including osteology and human evolution, throughout his teaching career, with an emphasis on general education for introductory students. His research interests include human and non-human primate skeletal biology, paleopathology, and paleoanthropology.

He is the author of Stories From The Skeleton: Behavioral Reconstruction In Human Osteology, as well as several publications in research journals, in addition to his three textbooks, which have been published in 35 editions.