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The over-arching theme of much of my research has been the exploration of long-term consequences of early environments for individuals' development and well-being.  My research utilises dental and skeletal indicators to investigate how differing aspects of maternal and infant/child environments (e.g. socioeconomic status, nutrition, disease load) may produce varying biological responses that affect quality of life and survival of individuals and populations.

I access retrospective information regarding maternal and infant environments in two major ways.  The first is through microspatial chemical analyses of tooth enamel, and the second is through the assessment of enamel microstructure defects indicating physiological disruption during tooth formation.  I have applied both chemical and microstructural techniques to ancient and contemporary populations.  Data derived from these methods can provide a great deal of information about what people ate, what their nutritional status was like, whether they were exposed to environmental pollutants, or if they were subject to poor health during the critical earliest months and years of growth and development.