Elizabeth Cho

Elizabeth Cho, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Anatomical Sciences, University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNT Health Fort Worth). She is also a Postdoctoral Researcher & Adjunct Instructor at UNT Health, where she combines osteometric, weather, and autosomal SNP data to study human skeletal variation.

• Ph.D. in Anthropology, University of Missouri (2022)
• M.A. in Anthropology, University of Central Florida (2012)
• B.S. in Forensic Biology (with High Distinction), Ohio Northern University (2010)

Her research focuses on human evolutionary morphology, particularly how climate and neutral evolutionary forces shape cranial and postcranial skeletal variation across genders. She compares East Asian populations with global thermoregulatory adaptations and explores links between physiology, anatomical variation, and skeletal structure in living individuals.

Elizabeth’s publications highlight interdisciplinary research spanning biological anthropology, forensic science, and evolutionary biology. She has contributed to understanding sex-specific skeletal adaptations and thermoregulatory principles in nasal morphology.

• 2021 Mildred Trotter Prize, American Association of Physical Anthropologists
• 2018 Dorothy Tompkins Gelvin PhD Memorial Scholarship, University of Missouri

She has secured significant grants, including the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2022) and NSF Biological Anthropology Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (2019). Her prior roles include Senior Biological Anthropologist at the Museum of Anthropology, University of Missouri (2017–2021), and Forensic Anthropologist at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (2012–2015).