Elizabeth “Lizzy” Nist
Evolutionary Anthropology and Earth and Ocean Sciences
Duke Class of 2021
E-mail: TBA
Phone (Cell): TBA
I spent the first half of my childhood in Lake Stevens, Washington and the second in a small town outside of Savannah, Georgia.
I graduated in May 2021 from none other than Duke University. At Duke, I designed my own unique major connecting geosciences and human evolution: an Interdepartmental Major in Earth and Ocean Sciences and Evolutionary Anthropology. As you can imagine, I am passionate about paleontology, paleoanthropology, archaeology, geology and everything in between. At Duke, I did research in paleoanthropology and human osteology as part of the Churchill Lab, investigating evolutionary tradeoffs in adaptations for bipedal locomotion and childbirth. I was also a research assistant for the Earth and Climate Sciences Department (known at the time as Earth and Ocean Sciences) for three years, helping with Dr. Emily Klein’s research on seafloor spreading.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I participated in Duke in Australia in Summer 2019, taught by the Dr. Alex Glass. Following this program, I stayed in Sydney, Australia and completed a semester at the University of Sydney. I also had the incredible opportunity to study volcanology in Hawaii during the infamous Duke Spring Break of 2020. Studying abroad was truly a life-changing experience, from snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef to camping on an active volcano, and every pandemic, new friend, and catastrophic wildfire in between.
I also played saxophone in the Duke University Marching Band and Pep Band (affectionately abbreviated as DUMB). I was able to travel for bowl games and basketball tournaments, and I even got to cheer on the Blue Devils at the Duke-UNC game. I recently joined the Duke Alumni Band.
I am currently taking a gap period before pursuing graduate school in evolutionary anthropology, where I hope to study late Pleistocene Homo evolution in Eurasia. Most recently, I am a research technician at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine (I know—wrong blue!). Here, I work with zebrafish and mice to help better understand genes that contribute to heart cell regeneration—goodbye heart disease!
I love camping, hiking, traveling, and painting. I have two cute kittens, Rainier and Cascade.
