Photo of contributor

Lee Gettler

Director, Hormones, Health, and Human Behaviour Laboratory
Academia & Health
USA

About Lee

Lee Gettler is a Professor and Department Chair of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. He is a leading expert on the study of the ‘biology of fatherhood.’ His ground-breaking work in this area has been published in The Proceedings of the National Academies of Science and featured on the front page of the New York Times. In 2025, he was named an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

With many fantastic collaborators around the world, he studies questions about the role of fathers in families, parents’ health, and child well-being in diverse global settings, including the Philippines, Congo-Brazzaville, and the U.S.

Lee is married to Laura, who is a nurse practitioner and inspires him with her dedication to improving the health of their local community. He is also a father to a kind, sensitive 10-year-old son, Leif, and a fiercely-independent, equality-focused 8-year-old daughter, Rowan.

Connect with Lee

Featured work

Research article

Longitudinal evidence that fatherhood decreases testosterone in human males

By Lee T. Gettler, Thomas W. McDade, Alan B. Feranil, and Christopher W. Kuzawa

Research article

Evidence for an adolescent sensitive period to family experiences influencing adult male testosterone production

By Lee T. Gettler, Stacy Rosenbaum, Patty X. Kuo, Mallika S. Sarma, Sonny Agustin Bechayda, Thomas W. McDade, and Christopher W. Kuzawa

Research article

Fathers’ oxytocin responses to first holding their newborns: Interactions with testosterone reactivity to predict later parenting behavior and father-infant bonds

By Lee T. Gettler, Patty X. Kuo, Mallika S. Sarma, Benjamin C. Trumble, Jennifer E. Burke Lefever, Julia M. Braungart-Rieker

Research article

U.S. men’s testosterone (T), partnering, and residence with children: Evidence from a nationally-representative cohort (NHANES) and relevance to clinically low T

By Lee T. Gettler and Sarah Hoegler Dennis

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Civil society & Philanthropy
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