Wang, Qian Associate Professor

Dr. Wang's earlier work focused on the comparative morphology of craniofacial skeletons of Mid Pleistocene hominin fossils. During his postdoctoral training, he was involved in a number of studies examining the internal structure of craniofacial bone and suture morphology and how it is related to skeletal growth, function and adaptation. His recent research focuses on the functional morphology and biomechanics of the craniofacial skeleton. He has incorporated a range of methods, including geometric morphometrics (e.g., 3D Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis and Generalized Procrustes Analysis/GPA), experimental approaches (e.g., in vitro strain measurements and ultrasonic techniques), computer-aided modeling and biomechanical analysis ( e.g., Finite Element Analysis), as well as phenotypic analyses. He has worked intensively on the various primate skeletal collections and has developed protocols for data collection and analyses of museum skeletal collections. In addition, he is a member of a multi-institutional research team made up of anatomists and anthropologists who have specialized in various aspects of functional morphology in order to systematically reassess the reconstruction and biomechanical interpretation of the face of early human types, based on current morphological and phylogenetic evidence and advances in biomechanical methods.