Libby Cowgill

Libby Cowgill is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Missouri, where she also serves as Director of Graduate Studies. Her research program focuses on human adaptation mechanisms, particularly thermoregulatory responses to climate and bone functional adaptation patterns. Using experimental approaches including climate chamber simulations and CT scanning, she investigates how morphology relates to physiological function across human populations.

Key research areas include:

• Human ecogeographic variation across climatic zones
• Bone structural responses to mechanical loading
• Developmental trajectories in Pleistocene hominins
• Ontogenetic changes in limb proportions
• Functional biomechanics of immature gait patterns

Current projects involve multi-institutional collaborations examining thermoregulatory physiology through controlled environmental exposures and CT-based anatomical mapping. Methodological innovations include principal component analysis of laser speckle imaging data for blood flow assessment.