Delegate to the International Obsidian Conference (IOC)

Kyle P. Freund, Principal Investigator, Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Nevada, USA This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Kyle Freund (Ph.D. McMaster University) is a Principal Investigator at Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc. whose specializations include lithic analysis, obsidian sourcing via XRF spectrometry, GIS and spatial statistics, and field survey. Prior to joining Far Western, Kyle served as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Indian River State College in Ft. Pierce, FL. He has been involved in a diverse range of field projects throughout Italy, Greece, Turkey, Canada, and the United States, although his primary research centers on how obsidian sourcing studies can be used to address questions of broad archaeological significance. This includes focusing on the role of obsidian exchange and gift-giving practices in structuring early farming societies of the Mediterranean as well as identifying long-term mobility patterns of hunter-gatherers in the U.S. Great Basin.

Delegate to the Governing Board of the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS)

Andrew Michael Zipkin, Scientist, Eurofins EAG Laboratories, 103 Commerce Blvd, Liverpool, NY 13088; Adjunct Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, 900 S. Cady Mall, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Andrew Zipkin is an archaeological scientist with over a decade of experience in elemental characterization, isotope geochemistry, compositional data analysis, provenience studies, geographic information science, and ethnoarchaeology. He currently works as an analytical chemist and materials scientist for the commercial laboratory and contract research organization EAG Laboratories. His instrumental specialty is Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry and its variants (e.g., single quadrupole, triple quad, magnetic sector multicollector), with an emphasis on in situ analyses of non-traditional materials by laser ablation. Zipkin has also been affiliated with ASU in multiple capacities since 2018. Previously, he was a National Science Foundation SBE Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. student at The George Washington University. He conducted archaeological, ethnographic, and geological field work in Alaska, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia between 2007 and 2019. In academic research, Andrew primarily focuses on developing minimally destructive methods for geochemical provenience studies and other classification-oriented problems in archaeology. Secondary research areas include material properties of hafting adhesives, identification of heat treated toolstone, and detecting chemical diagenesis in faunal hard tissue. His main archaeomaterials of interest are ochre, silcrete, and ostrich eggshell.

Delegate to the Groupe des Méthodes Pluridisciplinaires Contribuant à l'Archéologie (GMPCA)

Adrian L. Burke, Professeur titulaire (full professor), Département d’anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Director of the Archéoscience/Archéosociale (As 2 ) research team, Director of the Laboratoire de caractérisation des matériaux archéologiques
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adrian burke 2806 50326533608 o 1Adrian Burke is an archaeologist specializing in the physico-chemical characterization of rocks and minerals used in the past to make tools and ornaments. He carries out most of his research, including geoarchaeological fieldwork, in northeastern North America. He currently directs an XRF laboratory dedicated to the geochemical analysis of geological samples and archaeological artifacts. He also uses other techniques such as thin section petrography, SEM, XRD, and NAA to characterize raw materials. Burke was a key member of both the scientific and local organizing committees for the 2019 GMPCA colloquium in Montreal, Canada, as well as previously serving as the SAS Vice President of Intersociety Relations.

Delegate to CLASMAC (Congreso Latinoamericano de Arqueometría (CLA) y del Simposio Latinoamericano sobre Métodos Físicos y Químicos en Arqueología, Arte y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural (LASMAC))

Marcela Sepúlveda, Associate Professor Escuela de Antropología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Campus San Joaquin, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, 2° piso, Macul, Santiago- Chile & Associate Researcher UMR8096 ArchAm (CNRS-Paris 1), France; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Marcela Sepulveda Marcela Sepúlveda is archaeologist and Associate Professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her research concerned, since more than 15 years and from an interdisciplinary perspective (archaeology, anthropology, art history, chemistry, geology) with a strong archaeometric component and the physical-chemical characterization of materials, the materiality of art and color technology to specify the material practices and immaterial knowledge handled in the past with respect to the obtaining, production, consumption and circulation of mineral pigments. She conducted investigations in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, as well as in other regions of the country (semi-arid north and Patagonia) and neighbouring countries (Peru, Argentina), in the framework of several ongoing collaborative projects. Her research included several analytical techniques (SEM-EDS, XRF, DRX, Raman spectroscopy, between others) and prioritized in situ analyses. Sepúlveda was the SAS delegate to the VIII Congreso Nacional de Arqueometría (Argentina) in 2021. In 2022, she will serve as the SAS delegate to the combined conference of the Scientific Committees of the Latin American Congress of Archeometry and the Latin American Symposium on Physical and Chemical Methods in Archeology, Art and Conservation of Cultural Heritage.

Delegate to the Australasian Research Cluster for Archaeological Science (ARCAS)

Rebekah Kurpiel, Director, La Trobe Archaeology Research Partnerships, Department of Archaeology and History Room 146, Martin Building, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Bek photo zoomed inRebekah Kurpiel is the Director of La Trobe Archaeology Research Partnerships at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. In terms of archaeological science, she is interested in understanding past trade and transport patterns and in developing methods and methodologies for sourcing stone and ochre artefacts to investigate this. Rebekah has experience in undertaking trace element analysis (ICP-MS and pXRF), mineralogical analysis (XRD) and Pb isotope geochemistry to determine where artefacts originated. Rebekah is also interested in how scientific techniques can be employed to produce better outcomes in the context of cultural heritage/resource management. Rebekah has active research projects in Australia and South Africa, including work funded by the Australian Research Council, and is a committee member of the Australasian Research Cluster for Archaeological Science.