An anthropological geoarchaeologist interested in human-environment interactions, particularly anthropogenic and geomorphic components of dynamic landscapes and environmental change. His research currently includes projects in Peru and Jordan, where he examines landscape change and its relationship to long-term human occupation, as well as modeling impacts of past climate change in the Mediterranean. Dr. Contreras also has extensive experience in quarry studies, having co-directed the Proyecto Arqueológico Caracha Alto (PACA) Quispisisa obsidian source in Peru (http://mapaspects.org/projects/quispisisa), and surveyed the major obsidian sources of the Aegean and Anatolia as project geo-archaeologist for the McMaster Obsidian Procurement Expedition.