Illinois State Archaeological Survey

Ph.D. 2017, Anthropology, Southern Methodist University

M.A. 2012,  Anthropology, Southern Methodist University

M.A. 2006, Anthropology (focus on Archaeological Geology), Texas A&M University

B.A. 2001, Anthropology, History, and Archaeological Studies,  University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Aiuvalasit joined ISAS as an Assistant Research Scientist, Environmental Archaeologist in 2019. His research focuses on understanding how social institutions, built infrastructure, and land management practices influence the resilience of communities - both cultural and natural - to climate change. Using geoarchaeological methods and geospatial analyses, his interdisciplinary research incorporates archaeological, ethnographic, geological, and paleoenvironmental datasets. He has twenty years of experience working on applied and academic research projects across the Eastern U.S., Texas, and New Mexico, as well as in Central Mexico.

2022   Neely, J. A., M.J. Aiuvalasit, and Barbara M. Winsborough. Relict canals of the Tehuacán Valley, Mexico: A Middle-to Late-Holocene dryland socio-hydrological system. The Holocene 32(12): 1422-1436. https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836221121774 

2021   Roos,  C. I., C. I., T. W. Swetnam, T. J. Ferguson, M. J. Liebmann, R. A. Loehman, J. R. Welch, E. Q. Margolis, C. H. Guiterman, W. C. Hockaday, M. J. Aiuvalasit, J. Battillo, J. Farella, C. A. Kiahtipes. Native American Fire Management at an Ancient Wildland-Urban Interface in the Southwest US. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118(4): e2018733118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2018733118 

2021   Skousen, B. J., and M. Aiuvalasit. Questioning the Native American Population Rebound in the Horseshoe Lake Watershed from AD 1500 to AD 1700. American Antiquity 86(1): 199-202. https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2020.74 

2020   Brelsford, C., M. Dumas, E. Schlager, B. Dermody, M. Aiuvalasit, …. & S. Zipper. Methods for understanding how complex social and hydrological systems can contribute to Sustainability Science. Ecology and Society 25(2): 23. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11515-250223

2020   Aiuvalasit, M., Riley, T., and J. Schuldenrein. Multi-proxy evidence for rapid and enduring prehistoric anthropogenic vegetation change during the Late Holocene from an oxbow of the Mississippi River, Wapanocca Bayou, Arkansas, USA. Geoarchaeology 35(3), 351-365. https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21773

Register of Professional Archaeologists

Society for American Archaeology

Geological Society of America

Illinois Archaeological Survey