People

My primary research focus is on developing phenotypic models, based on various living primates and mammals, to understand how evolutionary processes such as adaptation, gene flow and genetic drift can change organisms and their evolutionary trajectories (and ultimate fate) through time. A significant portion of this research involves application of …

Bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, dental anthropology, Bronze Age Near East, biodistance, urbanization, ancestry estimation, fuzzy logic, race science and scientific racism.

Forensic Anthropology, Structural Violence, Trauma Analysis, Human Rights Violations, Traumatic Brain Injury, Osteology, Bioarchaeology, NAGPRA Policy, Public Health, Human Skeletal Biology, Complex Networks

Dr. Aiello is an evolutionary anthropologist with special interests in the evolution of human adaptation as well as in broader issues of evolutionary theory, life history and the evolution of the brain, diet, language and cognition.

Bioarchaeology, paleopathology, modern human variation of the foot skeleton

My primary research focus is on using archaeological human skeletal remains to analyze questions of migration, ethnicity, human identity and political uses of the past. My field research is predominately in Southeastern Europe.

Dr. Anemone’s interests are in primate and human paleontology, including the application of remote sensing and geospatial analytical approaches to locating fossil-bearing deposits. His paleontological fieldwork has taken place mostly in the Eocene of the American West, especially in Wyoming, while his paleoanthropological fieldwork has taken place in the Neogene …

Physical anthropology; skeletal biology; evolution of genus Homo; dispersal; evolutionary morphology; human osteology and anatomy; growth, development and life history patterns. Field programs in Asia and the Pacific.

Dr. Van Arsdale is a paleoanthropologist with research interests in the evolution of the genus Homo, hominin biogeography, population dynamics, race, and ancestry.

Sheela Athreya is an Associate Professor and Chancellor’s Edges Fellow at Texas A&M University. She received her Ph.D. in biological anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis, and her M.A. in Paleolithic archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Her research focuses on Middle and Late Pleistocene hominin evolution and systematics. …

My research interests focus on the application of quantitative genetics and functional anatomy to understand the evolution of traits in mammals, especially primates and Australian marsupials. My work focuses on morphological variation, including: the evolution of trait complexes; variation in body size, form, & proportions; functional anatomy; asymmetry; & morphological …

Alyssa’s research on diet and the oral microbiome in collaboration with First Nations communities in British Columbia, Canada integrates archaeological, bioarchaeological, biochemical, and biomolecular methodologies. She is interested in the ethics of paleogenomic research, as well as biological anthropology research with Indigenous communities more broadly.

Biological anthropology; paleoanthropology; dental morphology and morphometrics; Middle-Late Pleistocene hominins; Neandertals; modern human origins; Plio-Pleistocene hominin evolution; Europe; Africa.

Bioarchaeology, Human Osteology, Paleopathology, Mortuary Behavior, Migration & Culture Contact/Interaction 

Jada Benn Torres is an Associate Professor and Director for the Genetic Anthropology and Biocultural Studies Laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. She earned her doctorate in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico in 2006. She then completed a two-year postdoc in the Department of Medicine, Section …

My research focuses on questions related to growth and development, maternal and infant health, and maternal effects in humans and nonhuman primates.

Jonathan Bethard is a biological anthropologist with research interests in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology.

Michelle Bezanson is a biological anthropologist with research interests in evolutionary anthropology, primate behavior, and tropical forest ecology. Her field research has focused on infant, juvenile, and adult positional behavior (posture and locomotion), tail use, and the behavioral, arboreal, and resource-based contexts of locomotor patterns in primates. She also publishes …

Anthropological genetics, ancient DNA, community engagement and collaboration (especially with indigenous communities), informed consent, lab management, mentoring, authorship, research collaborations, peer-review, and extrinsic ethics

Focus: Stable isotope analysis, diet, breastfeeding/weaning, childhood growth and osteology

Dr. Burt is a biological anthropologist whose research focuses on understanding diet and health in modern and archaeological human populations. She works on questions of diet quality and food access with the aim of understanding and improving equity in the food system.

Alyson is a Ph.D. candidate enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Humanities program at the University of California, Merced. She studies bioarchaeology with research interests in ancient Egypt, archaeological applications of isotopic analysis, social inequality, and paleopathology. Her dissertation research involves understanding the ways in which social status intersects with foreignness in …

Origin of modern humans; Upper Pleistocene paleoanthropology; Evolution of longevity; Relationship between race and epistemology in paleoanthropology

Kimberly received her PhD from the University of Missouri in 2015. Since then, she has been focused on understanding the role of climbing throughout primate evolution. Her research program employs experimental models to explore the functional morphology, biomechanics, and behavioral adaptations related to different forms of climbing and arboreal living. …

Dr. Cooke's laboratory- and field-based research program focuses on 1) the evolution of mammals in the Caribbean and South America with a specific focus on the adaptations of the platyrrhine primates; 2) functional morphology of the masticatory apparatus; and most recently 3) extinction processes among the the Caribbean endemic mammals. …

Professor Covert focuses on the behavioral ecology and conservation of endangered Vietnamese primates.  Recent research with his graduate students has focused on human/non-human primate resource overlap in Vietnam and Cambodia; and the feeding and sensory ecology, positional behavior and habitat use, and genetic diversity among Southeast Asian colobines.

My research focuses primarily on human immunology, where I am exploring how different factors in human evolution (infectious diseases and stress) shaped inflammation and immune responses in different populations. My research tries to integrate experimental immunology, bioarchaeology, and human history.

Dr. DeLeon studies growth and development of the skull in humans and other primates. She uses morphometric analyses and three-dimensional virtual reconstructions to study the spatial relationships of bone and soft tissue in the developing head.

Paleoanthropology, fieldwork situations, responsible conduct of research, authorship, peer-review, and grantsmanship

Dr. DiGangi is an anthropologist primarily interested in human skeletal biology, which she studies to answer questions about health and well-being in the past and ways to improve human identification for the present. She teaches courses related to skeletal anatomy and identification, human rights, poverty, and ethics and is co-editor …

Human and nonhuman primate foraging ecology; sensory and behavioral ecology; human evolution and biology; plant-animal interactions; tropics

Human energetics, particularly nutrition and food choice, and the health effects of nutrition transitions in Latin America.

Anthropological collecting and the use of collections; repatriation (procedural …!--startfragment-->![endif]-->!--[if>![endif]-->!--[if>![endif]-->!--[if>![endif]-->!--[if>

Human physiology and life history evolution, particularly reproductive physiology and the regulation of reproductive effort.

Ecology, palaeobiology and paleoecology; evolutionary medicine; functional morphology

Sexual harassment and assault, gender inequality, fieldwork, and publication biases.

I conduct long-term behavioral and ecological field research on several species in the primate community of Amazonian Ecuador to investigate the ways in which ecological conditions (such as the abundance and distribution of food resources) and the strategies of conspecifics together shape primate behavior and social relationships and ultimately determine …

My primary research questions concern quantifying and understanding the growth of human and non-human primate crania, especially auditory structures and cranial base morphology.

Fuentes examines human evolution from several perspectives, and his research sheds light on some of the most common misconceptions about human nature, specifically in the areas of race, sex and aggression.

Dr. Garofalo is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Clinical Anatomy Block at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. She received a B.A. from Tulane University, M.Sc from the University of Bradford, and Ph.D from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the Center for Functional …

My current focus is studying the impact of genomic structural variation to  human evolution.

Dr. Goldsmith has conducted comparative studies on the behavioral ecology of lowland and mountain gorillas in the Central African Republic and Uganda, respectively. Later work focused on investigating the impacts of habituation and tourism on mountain gorilla behavior, ecology and well-being. Findings from this work led her to consider the …

Anne L. Grauer received her Ph.D. in biological anthropology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Her research interests include paleopathology (the study of ancient human disease) and bioarchaeology (specifically the study of human skeletal remains in archaeological contexts ). In particular, Dr. Grauer's research interests focus on the lives of women …

Biological Anthropology, Paleontology, Evolutionary Biology

Evolutionary medicine, with a focus on substance use and depression. Evolutionary approaches to ontogeny, cognition, and behavior.

Kevin Hatala is interested in postcranial functional morphology and the evolution of human gait. Specifically, he is interested in combining experimental biomechanical studies with analyses of the fossil record to better understand the evolutionary history of human locomotion.

Cara is a PhD candidate at University College London in the Institute of Archaeology whose research involves the 3D digitisation of human skeletal remains.  She is interested in understanding the ethics and ownership of 2D and 3D digital images of human remains, and in the development of ethical guidelines for …

Genotype:phenotype mapping of the primate dentition and human adaptation.

A biological anthropologist by training, Jablonski pursues basic research on the evolution of adaptations of primates, including humans, to their environment. For the last 25 years, she has been most intrigued by questions in human evolution not directly answered by the fossil record, foremost among these being the evolution of …

Her research interests include investigating  and refining methods accuracy for the biological profile in forensic contexts, analysis of trauma in the forensic context,  and stable isotope analysis of migration, provenance and diet. 

NAGPRA, repatriation and reburial, Title IX, LGBTQ issues

My research interests focus on human adaptation to diet and disease in the past. Most of my work involves applications of stable isotope analysis to the determination of past diet. Examples include studies of the adoption of maize in southern Ontario, determining the importance of freshwater resources in the diet …

Primate behavior, ecology and conservation, behavioral ecology, animal behavior, evolution of social behavior, human-primate interactions, ecotourism, biological anthropology

Biological anthropology, paleodemography, and forensic anthropology.

Craniodental morphology, fossil hominins, functional morphology, masticatory biomechanics, geometric morphometrics, diet evolution

Primary interests are in  in the history of the human condition, viewed from the perspective of health, quality of life, adaptation, and lifestyle during the last 10,000 years of human evolution. Major research projects include a collaborative investigation on native societies (with David Hurst Thomas, American Museum of Natural History) …

Human and primate evolution, integrating many different kinds of data across the discipline of anthropology, including information from genetics, anatomy, archaeology and socio-cultural anthropology.

Research and teaching interests include Biological Anthropology, Adaptabilityc Growth and Development, Nutrition, South America, Asia, and the United States.

Kristi Lewton is a biological anthropologist and evolutionary anatomist with research interests in the evolution of form-function relationships between postcranial morphology and locomotor behavior in primates and other mammals.

Tisa Loewen is a graduate student at NYU studying human skeletal biology and bioarchaeology. She is interested in anthropological perspectives on admixture, how we construct identity, and biological conceptions of human variation through time.

Elle Lofaro is a bioarchaeologist with research interests in cultural heritage, isotope geochemistry, identity and mobility, Southeastern U.S., Andes. She also has expertise in museum curation and issues pertaining to NAGPRA

Skeletal biology, growth and development, forensic anthropology, paleopathology.

genomics, indigeneity, bioethics, and archaeology

The evolutionary history of Native Americans and evolutionary genetics of non-human primates

paleoanthropology, nonhuman primates, dental and growth and development, 3D geometric morphometrics, science communication

My general research interests are in infant and juvenile social development.  I study primates because they are characterized by some of the most protracted developmental periods among mammals, and because what we learn about non-human primate development can be used to understand better the evolutionary history of our own. 

Broadly, I am interested in understanding the patterns and levels of human genetic variation. More specifically, my lab analyzes genetic variation in order to reconstruct human evolutionary history and the basis of different diseases and pathogens.

I work in the areas of physiology and physical anthropology (PhD from UW-Madison), with a particular focus on the locomotor physiology and biomechanics of humans in contemporary as well as early human populations.

Sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, research with children

Dr. Norton is a molecular anthropologist whose research focuses on the evolution of complex traits in humans, with a particular emphasis on pigmentation and skin-related phenotypes. Her recent research interests include genotype-phenotype associations (particularly in under-studied populations), as well as issues relating to race, ancestry, and human health.

My research interests focus on the use of molecular genetic methods, particularly ancient DNA analysis, to address long-standing questions in prehistory, including early population movements in the Western Hemisphere, as well as ethical issues in genetics and community based research.   

Human population biology, biomedical anthropology, medical anthropology, biocultural determinants of health, growth and development, chronic disease, obesity, maternal-child health, health transitions, global health, culture change, urbanization and economic development, health disparities, Pacific Islands, Vanuatu

Ancient DNA, Population Genetics

My academic background and expertise is in primate behavior and ecology with a focus on chimpanzees. I now work in science communication and public engagement with science.

Bioarchaeology, dental anthropology, biological distance, Medieval Hungary

Dr. Pobiner studies the evolution of human diets in the Paleolithic, as well as the teaching and learning of evolution in formal and informal educational settings. Pronouns: she/her/hers

Her primary research includes reconstructing paleoecological contexts for early human evolution in eastern and southern Africa, as well as identifying and analyzing fossil mammal communities to characterize their biogeographic and ecological affinities through space and time.

Austin is broadly interested in using modern and ancient genomic datasets from diverse populations to better understand the genetic architecture of disease, as well as human demographic and evolutionary history.

Dr. Richtsmeier's interests include craniofacial growth and evolution, quantitative morphology, the relationship between ontogenetic mechanisms and phylogenetic change, and the molecular basis of craniofacial development.

Primate ecology and behavior, primate conservation, ethnoprimatology, anthropology of conservation and natural resource management, human ecology; Southeast Asia

Dr. Rivera specializes in the bioarchaeology of the Baltic region.

Charlotte Roberts is a bioarchaeologist with a background in archaeology, environmental archaeology and human bioarchaeology. She has studied and interpreted human remains from archaeological sites for the past 35 years, and has been specifically interested in exploring the interaction of people with their environments in the past through patterns of …

A biological anthropologist, Rosenberg's work focuses on human evolution, with special emphasis on Neanderthals. She conducts research into the evolution of women and childbirth practices, and is the co-editor of the journal PaleoAnthropology.

Chris Ruff's work – which focuses largely on hominins – unites biomechanical skeletal-system modeling with comparative and evolutionary studies of primates. Knowledge gained through his work is being applied clinically. For example, the skeletal-strength indices he developed help clinicians predict people’s risk of developing osteoporosis and suffering bone fractures. Ruff …

Human variation, knee anatomy, postcranial morphology, hominin evolution

Dr. Rutherford is a biological anthropologist whose work integrates evolutionary theory with biomedical science. Her research program revolves around a central interest in the dynamic maternal environment in which a fetus develops, with a primary focus on the primate placenta as a signaling interface between mother and fetus. She is …

My primary research focus is the ecology and transmission of infectious diseases and their effects on human populations. I am particularly interested in the geographic spread of human infectious diseases in both historical and modern populations and the ways that human social behaviors promote or limit that spread. I am …

Primate development and life history, incorporating techniques from behavioral ecology, morphometrics, and genomics across the Order Primates and in vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus spp.).

Paleoanthropology, Anthropology Education, Science Policy

Jill is a paleoanthropologist who studies hominin craniofacial evolution. She has conducted fieldwork and analyzed fossil hominin and recent Homo sapiens skeletal material in Africa, Europe, and North America.

Dr. Fred H. Smith has worked on Neanderthal and early modern human fossil material for almost 50 years. His is particularly focused on the role of Neanderthals in the emergence of modern humans in western Eurasia.

I am interested in the ways that social and political power structures shape human biology in both ancient and contemporary societies. In archaeological populations, my work focuses on reconstructing the genetic and epigenetic effects of social violence and political transformation across the rise and decline of ancient states in Central …

My research focuses on human health and adaptation and sits at the intersection of human physiology, evolutionary biology, nutritional sciences, epidemiology, and the behavioral sciences.

My research focuses on biological variation in living human populations, particularly variation in physical growth and development among human populations. I am interested in understanding how the environment influences growth during the lifetime of the individual and how body size variation has evolved.

Population history and understanding how humans and other primates have adapted to their environments, including their disease environments

Dr. Strait is a paleoanthropologist who studies the evolution of hominin feeding biomechanics and hominin phylogeny.  He has conducted paleoanthropological and primatological fieldwork in South America, Africa, Europe and the Near East.

I am interested in understanding the behavioral ecology, life history, and population dynamics of primates from a comparative perspective, and in applying this knowledge to the conservation of primates and their habitats.

Adam Sylvester's research focuses on understanding the way in which humans and non-human primates move through their environments. Movement is essential for finding food, water, safety and potential mates, and is therefore critical to a specie's ability to thrive. He studies the structure and interactions of bones and muscles to …

My research focuses primarily on the functional and evolutionary relationships between feeding behavior, diet, and feeding-system morphology in primates and and other mammals.

Dr. Torres is a bioarchaeologist with research interests in mortuary archaeology, identity, inequality, mobility, cultural modifications of the body, trauma, and legacy collections.

Sharon Toth is interested in comparative anatomy of the knee. She uses dogs as an anatomical model for humans to understand the biomechanical and genetic susceptibility of the knee. She also retains her interest in evolutionary anthropology, especially environmental impact on hominin evolution.

In order to begin to understand the complex and diverse forces that shape the order Primates my colleagues and I have employed ideas and tools from genetics, endocrinology, anatomy, behavior and ecology. We have attempted to link these disciplines in understanding the life history of vervet monkeys.

Biological anthropology, modern human and primate skeletal and gut anatomy, evolution of torso anatomy, human and primate evolution, fossil hominins.

My work is primarily concerned with the interactions between human reproductive biology and the ecological and cultural context in which it develops. My research program takes a biocultural approach, that is, the interplay between biology and culture takes a central role in interpreting reproductive and other demographical patterns.

Dr. Wagner's scholarship focuses on the legal, ethical, and policy issues regarding human genetics/omics. Recent research areas include the social and legal implications of DNA ancestry tests; racial disparities in health and justice (a multidisciplinary study of race, ancestry, appearance, discrimination, & prejudice); the integration of personal genomics in sports; …

My research focuses on human variation and evolution. I’m particularly focused on sexual dimorphism and sex differences in physiology as they pertain to locomotion.

Dr. Rachel Watkins' research focuses on the biological and social history of African Americans living in the 19th and 20th century urban US. She began this journey studying the health consequences of poverty and inequality through skeletal and documentary data analysis, with a focus on the W. Montague Cobb skeletal …

I am a biological anthropologists with a research focus on developing and testing forensic anthropological methods for reconstructing biological profiles, trauma patterns, and the post mortem interval. I also use long bone biomechanics to reconstruct activity patterns and behavior in past populations, and test hypotheses regarding changes in human skeletal …

Katrina is interested in how the use of large animal food resources, particularly marrow, impacted human biological and behavioral evolution through the application of methods like 3D modeling, differential geometry, and machine learning. She is also a co-founder of the AMAAZE research consortium and Science and Social Studies Adventures, …