About Me
I am a palaeoarchaeologist and Senior Lecturer at the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University.
I research the origins of human adaptation, social learning, and sociality from the perspective of South Africa, where the earliest evidence for modern human behavior has emerged. I have spent the last decade investigating the stone tools left by our earliest ancestors and developing methods for using them to address evolutionary questions. How did early humans adapt to changing climates and landscapes? When and how did humans learn to make complex tools? How interconnected were these early populations?
I approach these questions from three directions; lithic analysis, experiments, and archaeological excavation.
I research the origins of human adaptation, social learning, and sociality from the perspective of South Africa, where the earliest evidence for modern human behavior has emerged. I have spent the last decade investigating the stone tools left by our earliest ancestors and developing methods for using them to address evolutionary questions. How did early humans adapt to changing climates and landscapes? When and how did humans learn to make complex tools? How interconnected were these early populations?
I approach these questions from three directions; lithic analysis, experiments, and archaeological excavation.
Career Highlights
- 2021 Media coverage of research by CNN, New Scientist, and Cosmos Magazine
- 2019-2021 Awarded Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Fellowship (DECRA)
- 2018 Awarded University of Cape Town Faculty of Science Merit Award for Teaching
- 2018 Awarded Y2 Rating for Promising Young Researchers by South Africa's National Research Foundation
- 2017 Awarded National Geographic Foundation Waitt Grant as co-PI for the North of Kuruman Project
- 2016, 2017, 2018 Awarded Centre of Excellence in Paleosciences grants for the North of Kuruman Project
- 2015 Research featured on CBC's The Nature of Things: The Great Human Odyssey
- 2014 Research featured on Discovery Channel and Scientific American
- 2013 Awarded Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship
- 2012 Interview with Science Podcast and CBC's Quirks and Quarks, research highlighted by New York Times, Scientific American, and National Geographic
- 2008 Awarded Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada Joseph-Armand Bombardier Graduate Scholarship for PhD Students
- 2007 Awarded Alberta-Smithsonian Scholarship for 4-month internship at the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History, DC
- 2005 Awarded Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada Graduate Scholarship for Master’s Students
