Dr. Dan Cabanes is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University and the leading faculty at the Department of Anthropology Laboratory for MicroArchaeology (ALMA). He is also a full faculty member of the Center for Human Evolutionary Studies (CHES) and the Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS).

His research aims to understand the association between environment and human cognitive and cultural evolution. He investigates biological, social, and economic changes using microarchaeological remains

Dan is a phytolith and FTIR expert, with a formation background in archaeobotany and geoarchaeology. He has completed research in sites from the Lower Paleolithic to the Iron Age, and he also has lead groundbreaking research on phytolith preservation and collaborated in the development of a fast method of phytolith analyses.

Currently, he is studying the role of fire technology in the demise of Neanderthals and the arrival of Modern Humans into Europe. His research interests also include the deep roots of the Anthropocene and the impact of human activities in the fossil sedimentary record, which has implications beyond the field of Human Evolution and can contribute to other exciting topics such as the current climatic change and its effects on migrations and health.

Dr. Laugier is an NSF postdoctoral fellow collaborating 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).

Kyra Johnson is a first year graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers. She received a BA in Anthropology from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in May of 2019. For her dissertation she is interested in understanding how bones are affected by fire on micro, meso, and macro scales. In addition, she is interested in trying to pinpoint the best way to identify heat treatment on bones in the archaeological record

Joe Mezza is a Junior (class of 2023) in the Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Evolutionary Anthropology and History. At ALMA, he is currently conducting phytolith and FTIR analyses on samples from the Upper Paleolithic site Abrigo do Lagar Velho in central Portugal.

Marc is a senior in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University. He is double majoring in Anthropology and Political Science. As a member of the ALMA Lab, he is doing FTIR and Phytolith analysis in relation to Neanderthal and AMH occupation in various paleolithic sites