Research Labs in Bilby

Anthropology Labs
jan.ucc.nau.edu/~d-antlab/

Paleoethnobotany Lab - Andrea Hunter
Ceramics Lab - Kelley Hays-Gilpin, (personal website)
Lithics Lab - Francis Smiley, IV

Analysis of archaeological faunal, ceramic, botanical and lithic remains is conducted in four interconnected labs that house important reference collections of archaeological ceramic specimens and clays, botanical materials, bones, and stone artifacts. The archaeology laboratory has been internationally recognized for work on the Anasazi, people who inhabited Arizona beginning about 3,000 years ago.

Arizona Water Institute
www.azwaterinstitute.org
Water Research, Education, and Outreach website

We are very pleased to welcome the newly-created Arizona Water Institute to the Bilby Center. AWI was created to coordinate the efforts of Arizona’s three state universities in addressing issues of water education, research, community assistance, and economic developments. AWI also partners with Arizona state Departments of Water Resources, Environmental Quality, and Commerce, and other partnerships are being established. Inside NAU ran a story about the new institute here.

Navajo Nation Archaeology Division & Student Training Program
www4.nau.edu/nnad/

Davina Twobears, 523-9151

The Navajo Nation Archaeology Division (NNAD) represents the first and largest Native American cultural resource management program in the United States. Through a memorandum of agreement between the Navajo Nation and NAU, NNAD operates a branch office on campus at the Bilby Research Center. The primary goal is to conduct archaeological surveys on the western part of the Navajo Reservation. In addition to these surveys, the student training program supports and encourages Native American anthropology students by offering workshops tailored to the students' interests, and through employment and on-the-job training in survey methods, analysis of lithics and ceramics, computer skills, and tribal and federal policies regarding archaeology.

Laboratory of Paleoecology
www.nau.edu/~envsci/faculty/ScottAnderson/lab.htm

Scott Anderson, 523-5821 (personal website)
Susan Smith 523-7276

The primary mission of the Laboratory of Paleoecology, established in 1987, is the investigation of late-Quaternary environmental change through the analysis of pollen, plant macrofossils, and charcoal from stratigraphic profiles, sediment cores, archaeological sites, and packrat midden assemblages. Recent projects have been conducted primarily in the western states, as well as Alaska, northern Mexico, and New England.

Facilities at the Bilby Center include a state-of-the-art pollen processing room, several microscopes for a variety of analyses, a magnetic susceptibility system, and a reference collection that contains approximately 2500 modern pollen specimens and 1200 macrofossil specimens. The lab has coring and boat equipment for collecting sediment cores from a variety of environments.

Watershed Research and Education Program
watershed.nau.edu
Water Research, Education, and Outreach website

Charles Schlinger, 523-0652 (personal website)

The mission of the Watershed Research and Education Program is to develop, coordinate, and promote water resources research, education and outreach in north-central Arizona watersheds. Also, check out the new Water Research, Education, and Outreach website.

Ethnoecology and Indigenous Mapping Lab,
Center for Sustainable Environments
environment.nau.edu

Patty West, 523-2942

The Ethnoecology and Indigenous Mapping Lab is dedicated to preserving native food traditions on the Colorado Plateau (and elsewhere). Their activities include (but are not limited to!) helping Native American tribes and others restore traditional farmlands and orchards, teaching about wild food harvesting and processing, and preserving and promoting the use of heirloom varieties of food crops.

Soil, Sediment, and Landform Analysis Lab

Diana Anderson, 523-1276  (personal website)
Kirk Anderson, 523-0576
Darrell Kaufman, 523-7192  (personal website)

The Soil, Sediment, and Landform Lab is designed to address both field and lab-based paleoenvironmental and paleolandscape studies. It houses a state-of-the-art particle-size analyzer, and has the equipment necessary for pretreatment, magnetic susceptibility studies, and field mapping and survey. The lab can also determine basic soil chemical properties, and is used for a number of research projects, including investigation of climate change as revealed in lake cores, soil chronosequence studies, alluvial processes and stream restoration, and archaeological studies such as prehistoric soil conditions and ancient canal systems.

Holocene Environmental Change Laboratory
Water Research, Education, and Outreach website

Research in the Holocene Environmental Change Laboratory is oriented toward detecting the magnitude of human impact on watersheds. Current research includes analysis of sediment cores recovered from reservoirs in northern Arizona to assess the history and regional extent of metals contamination, primarily lead and mercury, in Arizona watersheds, and assessing biological productivity in lakes and reservoirs through water quality monitoring and modeling.

Paul Gremillion, 523-5382

Electron Microprobe Laboratory
jan.ucc.nau.edu/~wittke/Microprobe/Probe.html

Electron microprobe analysis is a non-destructive method for determining the chemical composition of tiny amounts of solid materials. Variations in chemical composition within a material, such as a mineral grain or metal, can be readily determined. Although principally used for geological investigations, the microprobe is available to all in the university community as well as outside researchers. Projects have included research in metamorphic and igneous petrology, and studies of archaeological materials such as pottery paste, temper, and glazes, stone tools, and glass.

James Wittke, 523-9565 (personal website)