Louis Kahn was my favorite architect as an undergraduate architecture student, but I did not know this quote from Kahn until I was well into my graduate studies in Classical Archaeology. I am a detail person and I have always taken great pleasure in finding the traces of the hand of the creator whether that is in a column, a wall, a terracotta pot, or a glass vessel. So when I first read this quote, I knew that it would be the epigraph of my first book, Concrete Vaulted Construction in Imperial Rome: Innovations in Context (Cambridge 2005). I like connecting the makers to the things made. The human capacity for creativity and innovation continually mystifies and inspires me. That’s what I try to uncover in my research - the traces that tell us how a thing was made and why they are relevant to our broader understanding of the ancient world. At a level beyond the individual maker lies the process of many hands and minds working together to make very large dreams become reality. Networks of people, all using invented tools and machines to work materials, are involved in supplying the building site, via road, river, and sea. In my second book, Innovative Vaulting in Architecture of the Roman Empire, 1st to 4th Centuries CE (Cambridge 2015), I focused on some of these larger issues of knowledge exchange throughout the empire. Putting together the pieces of this vast puzzle from micro to macro is what drives my work and generates the enthusiasm I have for it.

For more about me and my work see the Bio page. Many of my publications are available for download from the Publications page. Snapshots of mentors, colleagues, and professional friends are posted on the Friends page - you may even find yourself there!.