His father owned a small chain of hotels and the family spent their summers on lakes in Michigan, combining recreation with Christian charitable building work.
[3] During this time Lovejoy has published more than 100 articles related to his research, including for general interest magazines as well as professional journals, such as Science, Nature, Bioessays and Scientific American.
[4] Lovejoy is most well known for his work on reconstructing Lucy (Australopithecus)—a near-complete fossil of a human ancestor that walked upright more than three million years ago.
His research has covered a broad spectrum of human biological areas from eukaryotic mutations to ectocranial suture closures.
[8] Acting as a technical adviser for the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office in Cleveland, Ohio, he has aided in crime scene analysis[8] and testified as an expert witness in trials.