Eric Anderson

Eric Anderson is an entrepreneur and bioarchaeologist who has worked across the United States and overseas. After serving in the United States Marine Corps in 2014, he attended the University of South Alabama. He found his path after taking the course “Answers from the Grave: The Archaeology of Death in Prehistoric Britain” during a study abroad program in the U.K. This course sparked his curiosity about a new discipline, and upon returning, he changed his degree to anthropology. At South Alabama, he discovered his passion for bioarchaeology and attended the Field School in Mortuary Archaeology in Giecz, Poland. In 2018, he earned a B.A. in Anthropology and began working for the DESCO CRM firm as an archaeologist.

Wanting to further his academic career, Eric obtained his MA in Applied Anthropology at Mississippi State University (MSU). At MSU, attended the Bioarchaeology in Croatia field school, took first place in two graduate student poster symposium competitions, and started a football tailgating fundraiser to raise money for graduate student research. He also joined the Field School in Mortuary Archaeology as an assistant osteologist on the Giecz team in Poland. Here, he taught students each summer osteology and excavation techniques for human remains. Eric has worked as a bioarchaeologist for the Arizona State Museum, an Osteologist in Hawaii for Cultural Surveys Hawaii, and a Forensic anthropologist contractor for SNA International. In his master's thesis, he invented the Portable Osteometric Device (POD) and tested its reliability and validity as a replacement for the current portable osteometric board design. This novel device inspired Eric to found Advanced Research Collection Technologies LLC (ARCTECH) in 2021, marking the beginning of his entrepreneurial career where he has presented research at conferences, received multiple grants, and is working on collaborative research projects to develop new ideas. His aim for ARCTECH is to bring an entrepreneurial perspective to anthropology, thereby enhancing and expanding its scope.