Sandy studies human hair from evolutionary, morphological and genetic perspectives. With a background in forensic analysis of hair, she combines microscopical analysis with genomics to study variation within and across human populations, focusing on the influence of ancestry informative markers on scalp hair morphology and ultrastructure.
Sandy is certified by the American Board of Criminalistics in the area of hairs and fibers and contributes expert testimony on human hair for criminal cases in jurisdictions across the USA. She has presented her research at InterMicro in 2016 and 2017 and was recently interviewed about hair for Brains On.
Selected Publications
Koch, S. L., Liebowitz, C., Shriver, M. D., & Jablonski, N. G. (2020 online). Microscopical discrimination of human head hairs sharing a mitochondrial haplogroup. Journal of Forensic Sciences, Early View. doi:10.1111/1556-4029.14560
Trejos, T., Koch, S., & Mehltretter, A. (2020). Scientific foundations and current state of trace evidence – A review. Forensic Chemistry, 18, 100223. doi: 10.1016/j.forc.2020.100223
Koch, S. L., Tridico, S. R., Bernard, B. A., Shriver, M. D., & Jablonski, N. G. (2020). The biology of human hair: A multidisciplinary review. American Journal of Human Biology, 32(2), e23316. doi:10.1002/ajhb.23316
Koch, S. L., Shriver, M. D., & Jablonski, N. G. (2019). Variation in human hair ultrastructure among three biogeographic populations. Journal of Structural Biology, 205(1), 60-66. doi:10.1016/j.jsb.2018.11.008
Tridico, S. R., Koch, S., Michaud, A., Thomson, G., Kirkbride, K. P., & Bunce, M. (2014). Interpreting biological degradative processes acting on mammalian hair in the living and the dead: Which ones are taphonomic? Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1796): 20141755. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.1755