Researchers and students affiliated with the laboratory are schooled in the diverse nature of lithic technologies and acquire a global view of stone tool production throughout prehistory. The strong background in lithic technology acquired through broadly configured course work and readings, and training in stone working, fosters professionalism in both undergraduate and graduate studies, as well as in post-graduate research. The program is structured to meet the needs of students and professionals alike, and has atracted international researchers from such diverse regions as Israel and Russia. Students and visiting scholars are encouraged to design research projects, work on archaeological collection analysis, and conduct their own experimental and replicative studies.

Past and current projects conducted at the Lithic Technology Laboratory include research on a wide range of topics, such as the economic organization of flint mining in the Neolithic Near East; "bullet core" and microblade technology in the Near East and much of Asia and Northwest America; percussion-blade technology in the Levantine Neolithic; North American Clovis technology; Hopewell bladelet core industries; Mesoamerican prismatic blade production; Acheulean handaxe and cleaver technology; Levallois technology; Central Plains blade technology; formation of use-wear on sickle blades; production of flaked and ground flint axes; projectile point design and function; lithic evidence of threshing sledges in prehistory; quarrying and production of milling implements; thermal pretreatment of siliceous stone; and the analysis of debitage from a broad range of technologies.