I am a doctoral student of Biological Anthropology at the University of Michigan studying various human populations that live (and perhaps thrive) within environmental extremes. These include Neanderthals, both the “Fuegians” of Southern Patagonia and their highland Andean neighbors, Siberians such as the Yakut, and First Nations and Inuit peoples. While I primarily use novel and open-access genome data, I have an interest in expanding my research to include thermal imaging, bone mineral density, and ethnohistorical/archaeological material.
My field work will place both in Santiago, Chile, and in the southern tip of the Andean Cordillera, in and around Parque Nacional Torres del Paine and down to Cape Horn. This research has three major themes:
- Prehistoric and trans-Andean population movements
- Adaptive introgression and admixture
- The role of climate change in driving biological and cultural evolution.
Research Experience
Collaborator | PaleoBARN, Oxford University: Fall 2014 – 2016
Research Assistant | Crews Lab, MCDB, Yale University: Spring 2014 – Fall 2015
Postgraduate Research Assistant | Archaeology, Durham University: 2013 – 2014
Curatorial Assistant | Peabody Museum, Yale University: 2011 – 2013
Research Assistant | Anthropology, University of Connecticut: 2011 – 2013
Field Archaeologist | University of Tübingen: Summer 2012
Apart from the academe, I enjoy fly fishing, hiking, and grilling.
(Updated 01-Feb-2017)
