Dr Rachel Ives

I'm the Curator of Anthropology in the department of Earth Sciences and I am responsible for the day to day curation and documentation of our Palaeoanthropology, Fossil Primate, Human Remains and Artefact collections. I promote and supervise scientific research, exhibitions and outreach access to the collections, manage collections enquiries and databasing and contribute to collections management.

I also carry out scientific research and am interested in bone cell biology, juvenile skeletal growth and the effects of adult ageing, together with skeletal evidence of disease (palaeopathology). I'm particularly interested in the group of metabolic bone diseases, which are conditions mediated by the lifestyle, environment and diet of a population group, and include vitamin D deficiency, vitamin C deficiency and osteoporosis. Identifying these diseases, and the relationships between them, can help us to develop a better understanding of what life and health was like in the past. I previously worked on the NHMUK Calleva Child Health project which investigated how the skeleton changes during childhood development and in response to pathology.

I'm an osteoarchaeologist and have supervised several burial ground excavations and conducted osteological analyses and reporting on human remains and burial archaeology, and I carry out consultancy for osteoarchaeological projects. I also undertake Master's level teaching as well as public outreach events, including NHMUK Nature Live: A Skeleton Health Check.