Research Interests
I am interested in the evolution of hominin behavior and the environmental and physiological forces which shaped it over time. I am intrigued by functional morphology, especially of the bipedal shoulder. My research will investigate experimental models of usage and performance of the human shoulder during activities such as throwing and tool production in conjunction with a comparative study of hominid shoulder morphology. I am fascinated by questions such as: How did bipedalism affect other anatomical changes in hominins, and how did these changes allow for the introduction of evolutionarily important behaviors? Can we see any correlations between the appearance of major hominin behavioral changes, as indicated by tool development and usage, with changes in their skeletal and soft tissue anatomy? What was the role of the paleoenvironment in stimulating or restricting changes in hominin behavior?
Current Research
I am currently working on an experimental project investigating the kinematics of throwing. Using Qualysis three-dimensional imaging equipment (for positional data collection) and electromyography (for muscular firing patterns) on human volunteers, I am testing a multi-segment model of the optimized kinetics and muscular activation required to produce accurate, high velocity throws. By combining experimental analysis, morphometric data, and a touch of computational programming, I hope to address what changes in hominin thorasic and forelimb anatomy may have had upon performance in evolutionarily relevant behaviors.
In the rest of my copious spare time in Cambridge, I have been known to enjoy measuring bones and teeth and thinking about exciting topics such as locomotor biomechanics, sexual dimorphism, and dietary change.
Fieldwork
As an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut, I participated in Dr. Sally McBrearty’s ongoing field project in the Kapthurin Formation, in Baringo, Kenya. Dr. McBrearty’s project focused on Middle Stone Age artifacts and material culture (approximately 250-300,000 years old) and their spatial distribution on the landscape. This landscape approach allows for inferences to be made regarding land usage patterns by hominids exhibiting early modern behavior. After graduating from UConn, I worked as an archaeologist for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, surveying tribal lands and conducting excavations of a post-contact gravesite on Mason’s Island and a pre-contact, woodland camp in Ledyard, CT.
Since coming to Harvard, I have worked with Dr. Christian Tryon investigating the archaeology and tephrastratigraphy of the Kapedo Beds (135-123, 000 years old) in Baringo, Kenya and Dr. Rick Potts in member 13 of the Olorgesailie formation in the Kenyan Central Rift. Most recently, I have worked with Dr. Frank Brown investigating the geology and paleoenvironments of the Turkana Basin in Northwestern Kenya.
I am currently making plans to return to East Africa this summer to conduct paleoanthropological fieldwork, but I will be returning each weekend to mow the lawn for my wizened and senile father, whom I love like, well,... like a father.
