STEM Shoutout: Angelyn Bass

Assistant research professor wins award for preservation project

UNM Assistant Research Professor Angelyn Bass has been awarded the 2018 Arizona Governor’s Heritage Preservation Honor Award for her research on the Montezuma Castle and Casa Grande Ruins Preservation Project. This award was given to Bass, who works in UNM’s Anthropology Department, and colleagues Douglas Porter (University of Vermont) and Larry Nordby (Archaeologist) by Arizona governor Doug Ducey.

According to UNM’s anthropology website, “Bass is an architectural conservator specializing in the conservation and management of archaeological and historic sites…Angelyn’s current research at UNM focuses on the characterization and analysis of ancient earthen building materials (especially plasters) in the American Southwest.”

Bass and her colleagues plan to deliver presentations about the work at professional conferences and publish their work in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters.

“I am hoping the success of the research will bring the techniques of forensic science currently used in the evaluation of modern building materials to the study of ancient materials. through the use of scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray emission analysis (SEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and various image analysis techniques.” Bass said.

Bass conducted instrumental analysis in collaboration with Douglas Porter of the School of Engineering at the University of Vermont; Mike Spilde, Institute of Meteoritics, UNM; and UNM Anthropology doctoral candidate Katharine Williams.