Biography

I am an anthropologist, geographer, and Earth system scientist who uses methods and tools from the geosciences to study past and present human societies. I specialize in building models of coupled natural-human systems, focusing on the feedbacks between population growth, food production, and climate change over the past 10,000 years. My work has been featured in popular press outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Cosmos Magazine.

I am the Assistant Curator of Artificial Intelligence for Cultural and Biological Diversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida. I am seeking creative graduate students and postdocs in geography or anthropology who want to use machine learning, agent-based modeling, and other computational methods to answer big questions at the intersection of the natural and social sciences. Please email me for more information on current opportunities in my lab. Please fill out this form if you are a student at UF and interested in volunteer positions in my lab.

Download my CV or scroll down for more information.

Interests

  • Human Ecology
  • Complex Systems
  • Climate Dynamics
  • Social-Ecological Networks
  • Environmental Data Science

Education

  • PhD in Anthropology, 2019

    Arizona State University

  • MA in Anthropology, 2015

    Arizona State University

  • BA in Archaeology, 2013

    Boston University

Projects

Simulating Social-Ecological Cascades

Reconstructing How Climate, Society, and Environment Shaped Plague Outbreaks During the Black Death

AI-Powered Museum Microscopy

Transforming Ancient Materials into Interactive Digital Collections Using Machine Learning and Whole Slide Imaging

Uncovering Ancient Coastal Engineering from Above

Using LiDAR Technology and Aerial Imagery to Reveal How Past Societies Engineered Florida’s Coastal Landscapes

Evolution in the Ancient Mediterranean: Plants and People Through Time

Tracing How Millennia of Human Activity Shaped the Evolution of Mediterranean Bellflowers

Digital Prehistory: Simulating Ancient Human-Environment Systems

Building Digital Societies to Understand How Climate and Resources Shaped Human History

Why Cities Survive: Measuring Urban Persistence Through Time

Using Big Data to Understand How Geography, Population, and Institutions Shape the Life and Death of Cities

Bridging Global Climate Models and Local Impacts

Using Machine Learning to Transform Climate Predictions from Planetary to Human Scales

Mapping Humanity’s Footprint: 12,000 Years of Global Land Use

Building Digital Atlases of Long-term Human Transformation of Earth Using Archaeological Big Data

Meet the Team

Researchers

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Henna Bhramdat

Researcher, FLMNH

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Darcy Bird

Postdoctoral Researcher, FLMNH

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Aniruddh Chandrasekhar

Researcher, FLMNH

Grad Students

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Ashley Rutkoski

Graduate Researcher, Anthropology

Undergraduate Students

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Kai Blahnik

Undergraduate Researcher, Computer Science

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Heon Heo

Undergraduate Researcher, Computer Science

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Raul Rojas-Sillery

Undergraduate Researcher, Computer Science and Anthropology

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Kyle Stamm

Undergraduate Researcher, Computer Science

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Blake Wood

Undergraduate Researcher, Data Science

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Olivia Zhang

Undergraduate Researcher, Geography

Recent Publications

(2024). The macroecology of butyrate-producing bacteria via metagenomic assessment of butyrate production capacity. In Ecology and Evolution.

PDF Source Document

(2024). Ancient infrastructure offers sustainable agricultural solutions to dryland farming. In Soil and drought: Basic processes.

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(2023). Integration of urban science and urban climate adaptation research: opportunities to advance climate action. In npj Urban Sustainability.

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Contact

  • 1659 Museum Rd, Gainesville, FL 32611
  • Dickinson Hall, Room 376
  • DM Me