Aaron Shugar
Professor and Bader Chair in Art Conservation
Department of Art History and Art Conservation
Research Interests
Aaron has wide ranging research interests related to the scientific analysis of art and archaeology. He has ongoing research towards the development of non-destructive techniques of analysis including X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), fibre optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), hyperspectral imaging, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Raman spectroscopy. Aaron ongoing research interests include historic artist鈥檚 pigments and their degradation pathways, and inorganic material sciences as applied toward the study of ancient metallurgy, ceramics, glazes, glasses. He also is interested in the technical history of artifacts and their manufacturing processes.
Biography
Aaron received his honours H.B.A. in Anthropology and Law & Society from York University and his M.S. in Archaeological Materials from The University of Sheffield. Aaron received his Ph.D. in Archaeometallurgy from University College London. He co-directed the Archaeometallurgy Laboratory at Lehigh University, was a guest scientist at NIST, and a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution. He serves on the Scientific Vetting Committee for TEFAF and as a forensic materials export for the Court of Arbitration for Art. Aaron was the Mellon Foundation Professor in Conservation Science at Buffalo State University, and he is currently the Bader Chair in Art Conservation at Queen鈥檚 University.
Selected Publications
2013, Shugar, A. and Simmons, S. Archaeometallurgy in Mesoamerica: Current Approaches and New Perspectives published by University Press of Colorado.
2012, Shugar, A. and Mass, J. Handheld XRF in Art and Archaeology published by Leuven University Press 鈥 Studies in Archaeological Sciences Series. Ed. P. Degryse.
2023, Jennifer Mass, Vanessa Sigalas, and Aaron Shugar 鈥淪cientific Essay on the Shimmerman Collection of Meissen Porcelains鈥 in All Walks of Life. A Journey with The Alan Shimmerman Collection - Meissen Porcelain Figures of the Eighteenth Century ed V. Sigalas and M. Chilton. Arnoldsche Verlagsanstalt. Pg. 568-599.
2023, Shugar, Aaron N. and Mass, Jennifer 鈥淐ompositional Analysis of Porcelain Paste鈥 in All Walks of Life. A Journey with The Alan Shimmerman Collection - Meissen Porcelain Figures of the Eighteenth Century ed V. Sigalas and M. Chilton. Arnoldsche Verlagsanstalt. Pg. 600-617.
2022, Anya Shutova, Adam Finnerfrock, Jennifer Mass, Rebecca Pollack, and Aaron Shugar 鈥淭able: Analysis of Pigments on the Barnes Foundation鈥檚 Paintings by Amedeo Modigliani鈥 in Modigliani Up Close ed. Barbara Buckley, Simonetta Fraquelli, Nancy Ireson and Annette King. Yale University Press pg. 308-311.
2022, Drake, Lee B., Elizabeth Mayer, and Aaron N. Shugar. 鈥淯ncertainty and pXRF Measurements.鈥 In Advances in Portable X-Ray Spectrometry. Ed. Drake and B. McDonald. Royal Chemical Society. Pg. 447-489
2022, Drake, Lee B., Aaron N. Shugar, and Evan Kipnis. 鈥淎rtificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and XRF.鈥 InAdvances in Portable X-Ray Spectrometry. Ed. Drake and B. McDonald. Royal Chemical Society. Pg. 490-534.
2022, Jennifer Mass, Rebecca Pollak, Aaron Shugar, Adam C. Finnefrock, Silvia Centeno, and Isabelle Duvernois 鈥淪cientific Study, Condition Challenges, and Attribution Questions in Yves Tanguy鈥檚 Oeuvre鈥 in Analytical Chemistry for the Investigation of Paintings and the Detection of Forgeries. Chapter 2, Pg. 47-94 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
2019, Lisa Young, Aaron N Shugar, Malcolm Collum, and Christina L. Simms 鈥淔inding a Suitable Method for Chloride Removal and Preservation Storage of Spacesuit Gloves at the National Air and Space Museum鈥 in Aluminum: History, Technology, and Conservation: Proceedings from the 2014 International Conference. (eds) Claudia Chemello, Malcolm Collum, Paul Mardikian, Joseph Sembrat, Lisa Young. Pg 65-70.
2018, Peters, N., Shugar, A., Skinner, L., Ploeger, R., & Ravines, P. 鈥淢icroscopic observations to track the behaviour of cyclododecane crystallisation and the effect of crystal formation on fragile porous substrates鈥 in 鈥楽ubliming Surfaces: Volatile Binding Media in Heritage Conservation鈥, ed. Christina Rozeik pp. 67-78.
2018, Hamm, J., J. J. Chen, A. Shugar, R. Ploeger and K. Harada 鈥淭echnical Analysis of the Painting Waterloo Bridge, Veiled Sun, 1903, by Claude Monet鈥 in Monet's Waterloo Bridge: Vision and Process. Edited by N. Norwood. Rochester, RIT Press: 44-65.
2018, Shugar, A.N. 鈥淴-Ray Fluorescence Analysis of HM 1953鈥 Chapter 9 in Real Fake: The Story of a Zapotec Urn. Edited by Justin Jennings and Adam T. Sellen. ROM Publications, Toronto. Pg. 176-189.
2018, Shugar, A.N. 鈥淓xtractive metallurgy in the Chalcolithic Southern Levant: Assessment of copper ores from Abu Matar鈥, in Ben-Yosef, E. and Goren, Y. (eds.): Mining for Copper: Essays in Honor of Professor Beno Rothenberg. Pg. 276-296.
2023, Jennifer L. Mass, Aaron Shugar, Adam C. Finnefrock, Satoko Tanimoto, Margaret Little, Ren茅e Stein, and Ellen Archie, 鈥淪elenium-based black bronze treatment, as compared to other patination technologies of ancient and historic black bronzes鈥 in TECHN脠. La science au service de l鈥檋istoire de l鈥檃rt et de la pr茅servation des biens culturels, No 55 pg.64-74
2023, Murray, Alison, Biggs, Kyna, Shugar, Aaron, Ploeger, Rebecca, Uffelman, Erich, Stols-Witlox, Maartje, Gonzales, Patricia, Smith, Gregory D., Loubser, Maggi, L贸pez, Laura Fuster, Di Pietro, Giovanna, Sah, Anupam, Nevin, Austin, Sardarli, Arzu, Wei, Shuya and Casanova-Gonz谩lez, Edgar. "Conservation Science Education Online (CSEO) 鈥 A heritage science resource" Chemistry Teacher International 5, no. 3 (2023): 331-345.
2022, Beckett, F.; Shugar, A. 鈥淔ollowing the Light: Use of Multimodal Imaging and Fiber Optic Spectroscopy to Evaluate Aging in Daylight Fluorescent Artists鈥 Pigments鈥. Colorants 2022, 1, 208-225.
2021, Shugar, A.N., Ploeger, R. and Lavelle, M. 鈥淎 review of 50 years of teaching conservation science at SUNY Buffalo State鈥 in Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, DOI: 10.1080/01971360.2021.1928842.
2021, Shugar, A.N., Drake, B.L. & Kelley, G. Rapid identification of wood species using XRF and neural network machine learning. Sci Rep 11, 17533 .
2019, R. Ploeger, A. Shugar, G.D. Smith, V.J. Chen. 鈥淟ate 19th century accounts of Indian yellow: The analysis of samples from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.鈥 Dyes and Pigments, Vol. 160, Pages 418-431. ISSN 0143-7208,
2018, Chen, Jiuan Jiuan, Aaron Shugar, and Ashley Jehle. "X鈥恟adiography of cultural heritage materials using handheld XRF spectrometers." X鈥怰ay Spectrometry;1-8. .
2017, Stephanie Spence, Takaaki Harada, Athanasios Margiolakis, Skylar Deckoff-Jones, James Hamm, Aaron Shugar, Keshav M. Dani, Anya Dani 鈥淎pplicability of Femtosecond Lasers in the Cross-section Sampling of Works of Art.鈥 MRS Advances, 2(33-34), 1801-1804. doi:10.1557/adv.2017.242鈥.
2017, Paige Schmidt, Aaron Shugar, Rebecca Ploeger. 鈥淎nalytical Observations Regarding Butvar B98 and Paraloid B72 Blends as a Suitable Adhesive in Hot Climates鈥 MRS Advances, 2(35-36), 1927-1941. doi:10.1557/adv.2017.229.
2017, Rebecca Ploeger, Aaron Shugar. 鈥淭he story of Indian yellow 鈥 excreting a solution鈥 Journal of Cultural Heritage. 24 (2017) pp. 197-205.
2017, Takaaki Harada, Stephanie Spence, Athanasios Margiolakis, Skylar Deckoff-Jones, Rebecca Ploeger, Aaron N. Shugar, James F. Hamm, Keshav M. Dani and Anya R. Dani. 鈥淥btaining Cross-Sections of Paint Layers in Cultural Artifacts Using Femtosecond Pulsed Lasers鈥 in Materials 10(2), 107; doi:.
2016 , Ploeger, R. and A. Shugar. "Where science meets art." Science 354(6314): 826-828.
2015, Heginbotham, A., Bassett, J., Bourgarit, D., Eveleigh, C., Glinsman, L., Hook, D., Smith, D., Speakman, R. J.,Shugar, A. and Van Langh, R. 鈥淭he Copper CHARM Set: a new set of certified reference materials for the standardization of quantitative X-ray fluorescence analysis of historic copper alloys鈥 in Archaeometry Vol 57, Issue 5 pg. 856-868.
2008, Porto, S., Shugar, A. 鈥淭he Effectiveness of Two Cationic Fixatives in Stabilizing Water-Sensitive Dye-Based Inks on Paper鈥 in The Book and Paper Group Annual vol 27: pg 63-69.
2005, R.R. Chromik, D.-N. Wang, A. Shugar, M.R. Notis and R.P. Vinci, "Mechanical properties of Au-Sn intermetallics", J. Mater. Res. August, Vol. 20, # 8. pg 2161-2172.