ABOUT
I am an archaeologist deeply engaged in the study of environmental change and resilience. Currently, I am a Lecturer in the Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, School of Health & Behavioral Sciences, Bryant University and a Research Associate in the Department of Coevolution of Land Use and Urbanization at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology.
My research lies at the intersection of anthropology, ecology, and geochemistry and combines traditional archaeological field methods with lipidomics and isotope studies to investigate relationships between environmental processes, cultural change, and human evolution. I have an extensive research portfolio and network which geographically spans Africa, the Middle East, east and southeast Asia, and western Europe, and temporally covers the past three million years.
Much of my work has focused on reconstructing past climates and environments to look at the ways in which humans and our extinct ancestors responded physically, technologically, and culturally to differing ecological settings from the Pliocene to today. To do so, I use a suite of archaeological biomarkers to reconstruct past plant ecology and water availability (plant waxes), anthropogenic fire history (aromatic hydrocarbons), and population dynamics (faecal stanols and sterols). I am also an expert in multiple gas chromatography and mass spectrometry analytical techniques, including compound specific stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry.
Beyond my research interests, I am the coordinator for the Environmental Biology and the Sustainability and Climate Action programs at Bryant University, and the university’s Campus Sustainability Liaison. In my coordinator role, I advise undergraduate students and oversee the development and implementation of the curriculum. As the Campus Sustainability Liaison, I supervise sustainability initiatives on campus through the Sustainability Working Group.
Fieldwork in the Nihewan Basin, northern China, 2024.
My current research falls into three overarching themes:
The application of archaeological biomarkers for on-site paleo-reconstructions
The role of (micro)habitat variability in the origins and diversification of Homo
The importance of biodiversity for adaptability and resiliency.
This framework covers an interest in the application of state-of-the-art protocols, mainly plant wax biomarkers and stable isotopes, to a diversity of important archaeological questions, as well as ensuring access to robust analytical techniques and equipment for collaborators interested in pursuing these methods.
Key Research Highlights
Ecological Resilience of Afromontane Forests (EcoRAFt) project. This NSF International Research Experiences for Students project (award ID 2505273) is in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of Dar es Salaam and part of UMAPP.
Co-leading paleoenvironmental reconstructions for the Singida Heritage & Archaeology Research Project (SHARP) led by Dr. Makarius Itambu, University of Dar es Salaam.
NASA funded investigations into the preservation of biosignatures in lacustrine deposits with the dual purpose for understanding Earth climate and searching for life on Mars.
Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
EDUCATION
I received a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from Bryant University and a Masters of Science in Environmental Science, with a focus on Environmental Geology, from the University of New Haven. After my masters, I started working as a laboratory technician and research assistant in the Laboratory of Terrestrial Environments in the Department of Science and Technology at Bryant University. It was in this role that I first started using plant wax biomarkers for paleo-reconstructions, specifically in archaeological contexts. I then went on to complete a PhD in Archaeology with a specialization in Biological Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary. For my dissertation, I studied the environmental context of the earliest Acheulean (~1.7 million years ago) at Oldupai Gorge, Tanzania using the stable hydrogen and carbon isotopes of normal (n-) alkanes and n-alkanoic acids collected directly on-site from stone tool-bearing sediments and geological outcrops. I feel that my trajectory in higher education that began with a concentration in business administration, then a transition to environmental science, and finally a move to paleoanthropology and archaeology has truly provided me with diverse perspectives and experiences, and has shaped me into a multidimensional and transdisciplinary scholar with extensive field and laboratory training in the archaeological and biogeochemical sciences.
