Kristina Killgrove
Kristina Killgrove (born March 10, 1977) is an American bioarchaeologist, science communicator, and author who primarily covers anthropology and archaeology news and engages in research on ancient Roman skeletons. She is a regular contributor to "Mental Floss" and previously to "Science Uncovered". Since March 2015, she has written a regular science column for "Forbes". From 2012 to 2018, she was faculty in anthropology at the University of West Florida and she has maintained an affiliation as a research scholar at the Ronin Institute since 2011. She is currently affiliated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Biography. Killgrove grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, where her father was employed as an engineer for the National Ground Intelligence Center and her mother was a nurse. She has one brother. She is a graduate of Albemarle High School and the University of Virginia, earning a B.A. with a double major in classical archaeology and Latin. Killgrove attended East Carolina University and earned an M.A. in anthropology, then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned an M.A. in classical archaeology and a PhD in anthropology. She has taught college courses at the University of West  Florida, Vanderbilt University, UNC Chapel Hill, SUNY Cortland, and Durham Technical Community College. Killgrove is married to Patrick Reynolds, a GitHub principal engineer and the Oracle of Bacon; they have two children. In 2019, she resigned her position as chair of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) media relations committee to protest SAA's failure to eject an archaeologist accused of sexual harassment from their annual conference. Research projects. Killgrove's first research project for her dissertation focused on skeletons from two cemeteries in Imperial-era Rome. This work included palaeodietary reconstruction as well as the first strontium isotope study  of human migration in the Italian peninsula. From 2010 to 2017, Killgrove worked on the human skeletal material recovered from the site of Gabii, under the aegis of a project headed by Nicola Terrenato. Since 2017, she has led a team working at the Vesuvian site of Oplontis. SciComm. Killgrove has written a blog, Powered by Osteons, since 2007. In 2013, she contributed to the 'Ask A Scientist' column of the short-lived British pop-sci magazine "Science Uncovered". Since 2015, she has been a contributor at "Forbes", covering archaeology and anthropology news in her own column. In 2016, she  began contributing occasional essays for "Mental Floss". Killgrove has won two awards for her science communication. She has also provided expert commentary for numerous media outlets, including CNN, the BBC, LiveScience, Gizmodo, "Ars Technica", "Newsweek", NPR, and "Quirks & Quarks".