CHES Graduate Affiliate
- Melissa Boyd
- Advisor: Dr. Craig Feibel
- Focus Area: Geology
- Email: melissa.boyd@rutgers.edu
- ACADEMIC BIOGRAPHY:
BS Geological Sciences, Rutgers University 2012
BS, Evolutionary Anthropology with high honors, Rutgers University, 2015
PhD, Geological Sciences, expected 2021 - CURRENT PROJECTS:
I am working in the Lomekwi Member of the Nachukui Formation in West Turkana, Kenya alongside the West Turkana Archaeological Project (WTAP) and the West Turkana Paleo Project (WTPP). While I am broadly interested in the geological context of hominin evolution in East Africa, my research concerns the reconstruction of the environments of K. platyops and P. aethiopicus in Kenya. My thesis aims to analyze and interpret the sedimentary facies of the Lomekwi Member and its environs to better understand why this area was so appealing to our ancestors.
- RESEARCH INTERESTS:
sedimentology, depositional environments, geochemistry, stable isotopes, tephra, paleopedology, facies analysis, climate proxies, hominin evolution
EXPERIENCE
Geology field school, Central Turkey (SDSM&T), 2012
Kanapoi, Kenya, 2014
Lomekwi, Kenya, 2015
Lomekwi, Nariokotome, Kabua, and Locherangan, Kenya, 2016
