Rate My Professor Annie Sohler

Dr. Annie Sohler is a Research Fellow in the Department of Anatomy within the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Otago. She earned her PhD in Anatomy from the University of Otago in 2018 with a thesis titled 'Nutritional Factors in the Paleoepidemiology of Infectious Disease,' an M.Sc. in Paleopathology from Durham University, and a B.S. in Biology and Anthropology from Franciscan University. Her academic career at Otago has progressed from PhD student to postdoctoral research fellow and now Research Fellow, where she leads investigations in bioarchaeology and paleopathology. Sohler's research examines how nutritional stress and disease manifest in human skeletal and dental remains, employing macroscopic analysis, dental histology, and isotopic studies to reconstruct health experiences in past populations. Key interests include metabolic bone diseases such as scurvy, rickets, vitamin D deficiency, tuberculosis, and the impacts of migration and environmental change on migrant health.

Sohler has authored influential publications that advance diagnostic criteria and paleoepidemiological interpretations. Notable works include 'Macroscopic features of scurvy in human skeletal remains: A literature synthesis and diagnostic guide' (American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2018), cited 179 times; 'Scurvy at the agricultural transition in the Atacama desert (ca 3600–3200 BP): nutritional stress at the maternal-foetal interface?' (International Journal of Paleopathology, 2017), cited 75 times; 'More than metabolic: Considering the broader paleoepidemiological impact of vitamin D deficiency in bioarchaeology' (American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2016), cited 70 times; 'A brief history of nutritional rickets' (Frontiers in Endocrinology, 2019); and 'Vitamin D status in post-medieval Northern England' (PLOS One, 2024). In 2021, she secured a Marsden Fast-Start Grant of $360,000 for 'Embodied Colonialism: Bio histories of 19th-century Pākehā and Chinese Migrants to New Zealand,' analyzing stress markers in Otago cemetery remains to assess migration's health effects. Her work, with over 392 citations, provides critical deep-time perspectives on contemporary nutritional health issues, integrating bioarchaeological data with historical records to illuminate human-environment interactions.