Dr Louise Shewan awarded grant to advance archaeological teeth analysis methods

Archaeological scientist, Dr Louise Shewan has been awarded a research grant by the State Government of Victoria’s veski initiative to advance archaeological teeth analysis methods.

Dr Shewan, from the Faculty of Science’s School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is an expert in the isotopic analysis of skeletal remains and environmental samples.

Dr Shewan’s project, Human life histories: isotopic investigation of archaeological teeth, aims to advance minimally destructive methodologies for multi-isotope, high spatial resolution analyses of human teeth to explore individual life histories.

Under the veski Inspiring Women – Briefing the Funding Gap Grant, Dr Shewan can pursue the research and maintain competitiveness for future rounds of funding from major funding bodies.

“Teeth preserve a time capsule of information about diet, residential mobility, and environmental variation, which provides vital information about our childhood,” Dr Shewan said.

“With this generous grant, I will be able to explore methods used to analyse human teeth in history so we can better investigate the behaviour and habitat use of past individuals.”

The 12-month veski grants are awarded to exceptional women who face systemic barriers to success at a critical point in their career to enable them to continue their research endeavours.

The certificates for this year’s grant recipients were awarded at veski’s Inspiring Women event on Thursday 11 May by Bronwyn Halfpenny MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Jobs, representing the Hon. Ben Carroll, Minister for Innovation & Industry.

Read more on this year’s grant recipients here.

This year's veski 'Inspiring  Women – Briefing the Funding Gap Grant' winners included Dr Shewan from the Faculty of Science.