Bioarchaeology & Stable Isotope Research Lab (BSIRL)
Tung’s research lab is known as the Vanderbilt Bioarchaeology Stable Isotope Research Lab (BSIRL). Researchers and students prepare bone and dental samples from humans and animals, as well as plants from various archaeology sites in the Americas, primarily from Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and the United States, where many of our faculty and graduate students conduct research. We prepare bone collagen for carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotope analyses, bone apatite (carbonates) for carbon and oxygen, and dental apatite (carbonates) for carbon, oxygen, and strontium.
Tung and her students and colleagues conduct stable isotope analyses of archaeological human and animal samples to address questions about ancient dietary practices (using carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotopes) and migration patterns (using oxygen and strontium isotopes). Modern plant (carbon and nitrogen) and water (hydrogen and oxygen) samples are also examined. The oxygen isotope data also aid in reconstructing the climate from the eras to which the human and animal samples belonged.
The stable isotope research is conducted in this lab on the Vanderbilt campus, and much of the macro-skeletal analysis is conducted at field lab sites in Ayacucho and Arequipa, Peru.
Post-doctoral Fellow and BSIRL Lab Manager: Dr. Angelina Locker
Dr. Angelina Locker is a biocultural archaeologist who studies the intersection of migration, kinship, placemaking, and resilience of Maya people via isotope geochemistry and ancient DNA. She received her PhD from the University of Texas in 2020. Before joining BSIRL, she was a postdoc in the Critical Molecular Anthropology Lab at George Mason University.
Her research program focuses on how places are made and remembered. In close collaboration with Maya communities in north Belize, she investigates Maya persistence and resistance, re-evaluating popular narratives of decline, collapse, and abandonment. Using stable isotope geochemistry, she investigates movement and how pieces of Ancestors’ bodies were removed and reburied to create place. Combining isotopic and genomic data, she explores kin-making practices to assess how memory transcends time and space to link individuals, communities, and generations.
2024-25 BSIRL-Tung Lab Undergraduate Student Team
Lily Baker, 2024
Majors: Anthropology and Medicine, Health, and Society
Research Interests: Lily is interested in studying the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) in both bioarchaeology and modern human biology contexts.
Gloria Choi
Major: Anthropology, Minor: Biology and Computer Science
Research Interests: I am extremely interested in bioarchaeology and how various aspects of the environment and diet affected humans’ and animals’ lives.
Tierney Cunningham, 2025
Majors: Anthropology and Medicine, Health, & Society, Minor: Spanish
Research Interests: Along with a passion for bioarchaeology, Tierney’s field work in Huari, Peru, this summer has solidified her interest Andean archaeology, which she intends to pursue in graduate school. When she is not busy entertaining her mischievous cat, she spends time doing research on the archaeological site of Chavín de Huántar.
Justin He, 2026
Major: Biochemistry
Research Interests: Justin is on the Pre-Dental track interested in becoming a dentist as a professional career. This is his second year working with in BSIRL. He believes that studying the dentition of people’s lives in the past will help direct more effective dental practices for modern dentistry. In his free time, Justin likes to play the piano, cook, hang out with his friends, play video games, and work out.
Sophia Koss, 2026
Majors: Anthropology and Medicine, Health, and Society
Research interests: I am interested in the cross-section of anthropology and medicine, as I hope to pursue medical school.
Eugene Min, 2026
Major: Biology, Minor: History.
Research interests: My research interests are ancient teeth and the DNA found in the dental calculus, which can provide clues about disease patterns in the past.
Lauren Solecki, 2025
Major: Anthropology and Medicine, Health, & Society
Research Interests: Lauren is fascinated by forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology, with a particular love for osteology. She enjoys reading, listening to true crime podcasts, crochet, and movie nights in her free time.
Click to view past BSIRL-Tung Lab Undergraduate Student Lab Teams
2023-24 BSIRL-Tung Lab Undergraduate Student Lab Team
2022-23 BSIRL-Tung Lab Undergraduate Student Lab Team
2021-22 BSIRL-Tung Lab Undergraduate Student Lab Team
2019-20 & 2020-21 BSIRL-Tung Lab Undergraduate Student Lab Team
Tiffiny A. Tung 