Dr. Ann Murphy is an anatomist and skeletal biologist. She teaches Musculoskeletal Anatomy and Visceral Anatomy to undergraduate students in the Allied Health professions and to Biomedical Engineering undergraduates. Her research interests involve the skeletons of prehistoric Polynesian (Maori) populations from New Zealand. [More...]

Dr. Ann Murphy is an anatomist and skeletal biologist. She teaches Musculoskeletal Anatomy and Visceral Anatomy to undergraduate students in the Allied Health professions and to Biomedical Engineering undergraduates. Her research interests involve the skeletons of prehistoric Polynesian (Maori) populations from New Zealand.

Dr. Murphy has been teaching Anatomy at various Australian and New Zealand universities for more than 35 years. Throughout this time, she has managed to retain her dark and dry sense of humour. Dr. Murphy has taught students enrolled in many different degree programs, including: Medicine, Dentistry, Science, Physiotherapy, Exercise & Sport Science, Biomedical Engineering, Occupational Therapy, Communication Disorders, Hearing Science, Medical Radiation Sciences, Oral Health, Clinical Vision Sciences, Health Information Management, Pharmacy, Anthropology and Archaeology.

Her current research involves the metrical analysis of the postcranial skeleton in prehistoric New Zealand Polynesians (Maoris), with particular emphasis on sexual dimorphism. Her studies of various components of the postcranial skeleton have generated discriminant functions that demonstrate high levels of accuracy in sex determination. These functions provide a useful tool for the assessment of human remains in various contexts (archaeological and forensic) because they incorporate measurements that can be taken on incomplete or fragmentary skeletal material. Another aspect of Dr. Murphy’s research involves the standardisation of postcranial osteometry.

Her earlier research (commencing in 1977) examined the postcranial skeleton in two prehistoric Australian Aboriginal populations: one from the Broadbeach burial site, Southeast Queensland and the other from burial sites in South Australia.

Dr. Murphy has been an active member of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) since the late 1980s. For more than 15 years, she has been the elected NTEU delegate for the Discipline of Biomedical Science. [Hide detail]