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Erik Otárola-Castillo is an Associate Professor at Purdue University, specializing in the evolution, ecology, and diversity of behavior in prehistoric and modern populations, particularly among hunter-gatherers. His research investigates the effects of climatic change and the variation in food availability and distribution on the diet of North American native populations. Otárola-Castillo poses the critical question: 'What do people eat, and why?' to drive his research. He employs his expertise as an archaeologist and human evolutionary biologist, along with his skills in biostatistics, to develop quantitative tools that address significant dimensions of archaeological research, including spatial and temporal analyses. He also directs the Laboratory for Computational Anthropology and Anthroinformatics (LCA) at Purdue University, where he develops and implements quantitative models for human diet analysis, utilizes 3D-morphometrics software, and provides statistical software for zooarchaeologists, as well as engages in spatio-temporal statistical modeling using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). He is currently accepting qualified graduate students and undergraduate interns for his lab.
GRE is not required.