I am a doctoral candidate studying paleoanthropology at (SUNY) Binghamton University in New York with a primary research focus on why our own species and the Neandertals evolved. My research has focused on the mandible bone to identify prehistoric human species and also make inferences on how factors of behavior, diet, and climate can influence the morphology of this bone through evolutionary time. My research interests are in human paleobiology, evolutionary morphology, and mandibular biomechanics.