Alumni
Dr. Elise J. Laugier
Dr. Laugier is an Assistant Professor in the Environment and Society Department at Utah State University. Previously as an NSF postdoctoral fellow, she collaborated with the ALMA lab. She is an environmental archaeologist interested in agricultural practice and human-environment relationships during the development of early cities, states, and empires, particularly in Southwest Asia. Her current research integrates phytoliths and remote sensing to investigate the legacies of human landscape modification and to develop new approaches to quantify past land use. She is also continuing to build on her dissertation research using phytoliths to approach long-standing questions about pastoralism in Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq).
Joe Mezza
Joe graduated from Rutgers with a B.S. in Evolutionary Anthropology in May of 2023. During his time here, he wrote an honors thesis titled An FTIR Investigation of Site Formation Processes at the Lagar Velho Rock Shelter in Central Portugal, which received Highest Honors and the prestigious Henry Rutgers Scholar Award. He was also President of the Rutgers Rutgers Archaeology Society.
Taylor Andrews
Taylor Andrews is majoring in Biological Sciences with a minor in Evolutionary Anthropology. She worked an Aresty Research Assistant for Dr. Cabanes to study the impact of combustion activities during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic by analyzing microcharcoal in sediments from Abrigo de la Boja.
The GIRT Team
(Left to Right) Natalie Lau (Evolutionary Anthropology ‘21), Sandy Paredes (Evolutionary Anthropology ‘21), and Lucia Bellino (Geological Sciences ‘21) maked up the Grossman Interdisciplinary Research Team. They worked on the project entitled “The Missing Bones” with Dr. Dan Cabanes as their advisor. The project investigated the preservation of bone remains at El Abrigo de la Boja, a Middle to Upper Paleolithic rock shelter located in Murcia, Spain.
Christopher Kotkin
Christopher Kotkin graduated in Anthropology with minors in Archaeology, History and Art History. For his Honors Thesis, he conducted FTIR analyses on various ceramics utilized for domestic and construction purposes at the Roman villa of Vacone.
Aitor Burguet-Coca
Aitor Burguet-Coca is a Ph.D. student at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES). His research aims to study the use and management of fire from a diachronic perspective, ranging from the Middle Paleolithic to the Bronze Age. He applies a series of microarchaeological and experimental techniques to study the pyrotechnological record. Aitor has participated in numerous fieldworks in European and Asian sites, and he is an active researcher in world-famous sites like Atapuerca or Cova Gran. Aitor visited ALMA to work together with Dr. Cabanes on the identification of phytoliths and minerals in Mousterian and Neolithic fire remains.
Tomomi Shore
Tomomi Shore majored in Evolutionary Anthropology. She was part of the Aresty Research Assistant program with the project Prehistoric Fire Technology.
Matthew Fanuka
Matthew Fanuka graduated from Rutgers in 2018 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Evolutionary Anthropology, with a minor in Geology. For his honor’s thesis, he evaluated bone diagenesis at El Salt by testing different methods, including FTIR and isotopic composition. He is currently a graduate student at the University of Minnesota. For his Ph.D. he aims to improve upon the methods of ancient protein analysis on lithic artifacts from the European Middle Paleolithic.
Tibisay Navarro Mañá
Tibisay Navarro Mañá graduated as a Master’s student at the Department of Anthropology in 2018 and joined the University of Minnesota as a graduate student. For her master’s degree, she worked on a microarchaeological perspective of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in the Levantine sites of Skhul and Tabun Caves in Israel.
Ryan Smith-Cooper
Ryan Smith-Cooper graduated from Rutgers in 2018 with a BSc in Evolutionary Anthropology. For his Honor’s thesis, he performed a geoarchaeological investigation of the Middle Paleolithic site of El Salt, in Spain, using techniques such as FTIR analysis on bulk sediment samples and optical microscopy on sediment thin sections with the aid of Dr. Dan Cabanes and Dr. Carolina Mallol. During his studies at Rutgers, he participated in many excavations in Spain, Germany, and Israel. After graduating from Rutgers, he enrolled in the Master program at the University of Tübingen in Germany.
Louise Sun
Louise Sun is a senior (’22) in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University majoring in Evolutionary Anthropology and Geography while minoring in Archaeology. Louise will be working as an intern Fall 2021.
Lauren Best
Lauren Best is a third-year School of Arts and Sciences undergraduate student at Rutgers University with double majors in Classical Studies and Evolutionary Anthropology and a minor in Archaeology. She is interested generally in archaeobotany, with wide-ranging applications from Neanderthal behavior and Neolithic plant domestication to ancient funerary contexts and food production in the Mediterranean.