Pontus Skoglund's Ancient Genomics Lab at the Francis Crick Institute in London is looking for a postdoctoral fellow interested in ancient population genomics of dogs and humans. The Skoglund Ancient Genomics lab is a dynamic team with backgrounds in computational biology, molecular biology and archaeology, with state-of-the-art infrastructure. The Francis Crick Institute is the largest biomedical institute under one roof in Europe. Ancient genomics has provided abundant information about human genetic history, but has not fulfilled its promise to provide insights into a wider range of evolutionary processes. This postdoc will work on the lab's project to develop the dog and its wild ancestor the grey wolf as a model system for evolutionary genomics. The postdoc will work on ancient whole-shotgun genomes and targeted SNP data from over a thousand ancient individuals to reconstruct evolution in three phases: 1) Ice age wolf evolution. How did wolves evolve during dynamic climate changes? 2) Early dog domestication. When, where, and how did dogs originate? 3) Holocene dog. How did dogs evolve and adapt to changing human societies?
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[Website The Francis Crick Institute]
Pontus Skoglund's Ancient Genomics Lab at the Francis Crick Institute in London is looking for a postdoctoral fellow interested in proteomic approaches to human origins. The Skoglund Ancient Genomics lab is a dynamic team with backgrounds in computational biology, molecular biology and archaeology, with state-of-the-art computational infrastructure and an ancient DNA clean room facility. The Francis Crick Institute is the largest biomedical institute under one roof in Europe. The Institute is located next to King’s Cross in central London, with excellent transport links to greater London and Cambridge. Ancient genome sequencing has revolutionised our understanding of the evolutionary history of modern humans and close relatives such as Neandertals. However, in most environments DNA may only be retrieved from a few thousand years ago. In contrast, proteins degrade more slowly than DNA, and may thus allow insights from deeper time. However, the number of evolutionarily informative variants is lower in ancient proteomic data, and authentication methods for ancient proteomics are in their infancy compared to methods for ancient DNA. This postdoc fellow will join Pontus Skoglund and the Crick Ancient Genomics laboratory in applying and developing proteomic approaches to extend our understanding of human evolution. The work will include improving and developing methods for bioinformatic retrieval, authentication, and reconstruction of ancient protein sequences from extinct populations in collaboration with proteomics experts at the Francis Crick Institute and international collaborators. Then adapting population genetic and phylogenetic approaches (f-statistics & admixture graphs), and applying the methods to data from fossil material supported by the ancient DNA facility.
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[Website The Francis Crick Institute]
The School of Chemistry is seeking to appoint Research Associate in Analytical Chemistry. The role holder will join a multidisciplinary group of researchers working on a ERC-funded project entitled “SUSTAIN – Sustainability of Agriculture in Neolithic Europe ”, led by Dr Maria Ivanova (University of Vienna) with Dr Melanie Roffet-Salque at the University of Bristol. The postholder will be part of the Organic Geochemistry Unit within the School of Chemistry. You will be responsible for the acquisition of lipid residue data using chromatographic, spectrometric and isotopic methods. You will be acquiring compound-specific 14C dates from archaeological lipid extracts at the Bristol Research AMS facility.
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[Website University of Bristol]
The Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, School of Culture and Society, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University invites applications for postdoctoral position in the NeanderEDGE research project funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark Sapere Aude scheme. We are looking for an innovative scholar with a background in Prehistoric Archaeology preferably with a background in Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) research with a specialization geared towards questions of dispersal, mobility, culture, ecology and/or adaptive behaviour. The NeanderEDGE project aims to explore how Neanderthals responded and adapted to the extreme climatic instability of the late Eemian and early Weichselian at the northern edge of their distribution. The crucial focus is on establishing the northern Neanderthal distribution boundary and on understanding human biogeographical-, adaptive- and local extinction dynamics in times of extreme climate change. The project focuses primarily on the timeframe from 130 – 60 kya, corresponding to the Eemian Interglacial and early part of the last glaciation. This period represents a critical episode between a preceding and ensuing warm phase during which Neanderthals had established a presence in northern Eurasia. Spatial focus is on the subarctic-boreal climate zones transition (~55°N) across Eurasia as a potential dispersal boundary and southern Scandinavia serves as a detailed regional case study to investigate the distributional edge of the Neanderthal range.
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[Website Aarhus University]
The Heritage Laboratory at the Swedish National Heritage Board, situated in Visby on the island of Gotland, is hiring a two year heritage scientist position. As a heritage scientist, you will participate in the development of heritage science as a research area in Sweden. You will lead or participate in R&D projects with, among others, museums and research institutions, both nationally and internationally. You will work with communication and dissemination to varied target audiences. You will also have tasks in the development of the Heritage Laboratory as well as developing the field of heritage science in Sweden. Preferably you have a PhD, experience within interdisciplinary and cultural heritage fields, experience in organic chemistry and working with SEM-EDS, µXRF, FTIR, Raman or mass spectrometry.
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[Website Swedish National Heritage Board]
The hire will lead a new project to develop a rapid stable isotope test to differentiate ivories sourced from modern elephants and prehistoric mammoths – in an effort to identify mislabeling fraud within the world’s largest ivory market. There is sufficient scope for the hire to explore other research in the area of conservation forensics (e.g. differentiating captive vs. wild caught species of conservation concern) marine ecology, or other areas of mutual interest. In addition to their research duties, the hire will be expected to supervise graduate and undergraduate research, assist with SIRMS operations including methods development and promotions, and publish their work.
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[Website University of Hong Kong]
We are looking for a postdoc to analyse ancient metagenomic datasets generated from two different aDNA sample types. A first large dataset includes sedaDNA samples collected from Roman archaeological contexts (latrines and other organic-rich remains). These samples will be used to reconstruct past human consumption practices and economic contacts along and across the frontier of the Roman Empire. The second dataset comprises a limited number of aDNA samples from human remains. These aDNA data need to be analysed (taxonomic diversity, phylogeny, genetic ancestry, kinship, etc.) and contextualised.
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[Website Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam]
Jerzy Haber Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland opens a position of a research assistant in the Cultural Heritage Research Group of the Institute. The research assistant reporting to the head of the Cultural Heritage Research group will work on the development of a comprehensive mechanical and numerical model of historical, aged paint layers in paintings – innovative at a global scale. The paint layer is a complex assembly of humidity-sensitive materials which have – over centuries – aged, cracked, and delaminated. Cracks join up forming the network – the craquelure pattern (CP) – which is a distinctive characteristic of materials and physical structure of the artwork, an outcome of the construction and painting techniques employed by the workshop and the artist, but there is no knowledge on how CPs have developed and what is the effect of CPs on painting vulnerability to environmental variations.
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[Website Polish Academy of Sciences]
The Conservation Department at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, is delighted to offer the post of Leverhulme Trust Postdoctoral Research Assistant – Conservation on the Research Project Grant “Ruskin's painting materials: what he used, what he chose, what he taught”. The project, aims to understand the impact of the 19th-century Industrial Revolution on Ruskin's artworks and pedagogical approach and to expand our knowledge of industrially produced painting materials and their deterioration processes. The successful candidate will work closely with Conservation Manager (Preventive, Science and Technical) the project PI, Head of Conservation (Co-PI), paper conservators, Western Art Department curators as well as other specialists and researchers relating to the subject. The role will focus primarily on using non-destructive analytical techniques such as MA-XRF, XRD and FORS. You will manage and carry out academic research and analytical activities relating to the Ruskin Project. You will prepare working theories and analyse qualitative and quantitative data from a variety of non-destructive analytical techniques. You will develop ideas and proposals for research that will further the aims of the project. You will collaborate in the preparation of research publications, write for academic and non-academic audiences, and disseminate research through conferences, seminars, exhibitions, social media and museum events.
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[Website University of Oxford]
We seek a postdoctoral research fellow specializing in stable isotope analysis applied to bone collagen and archaeological osteological remains of humans and other key taxa, focusing on the introduction and prehistoric development of agriculture in Norway. the successful applicant will design sample-collection strategies to build an isotopic baseline for Norwegian prehistory that outlines core human food webs. The human skeletal material has already been sampled for aDNA analysis and is available for stable isotope measurements. The postdoctoral fellow will analyze these human bones to follow the adaptation to changing environments, mobility, and variability in economic strategies employed by different groups of the population. Animal bones and other food sources will be sampled from museum collections. The successful candidate will establish protocols for data collection, extract collagen, carry out stable isotope measurements using state-of- the-art in house IRMS equipment, write research manuscripts for international journals, and be co-author of other interdisciplinary papers with collaborating partners. Compulsory work for the University Museum can include teaching, but also archaeozoology, human osteology, or stable isotope analyses for other projects, instrument maintenance or outreach activities, depending on the qualification and interests of the applicant.
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[Website NTNU]
We seek a postdoctoral research fellow specializing in stable isotope analysis applied to bone collagen and archaeological osteological remains of humans and other key taxa, focusing on the introduction and prehistoric development of agriculture in Norway. More specifically, the successful applicant will design sample-collection strategies to build an isotopic baseline for Norwegian prehistory that outlines core human food webs. The human skeletal material has already been sampled for aDNA analysis and is available for stable isotope measurements. The postdoctoral fellow will analyze these human bones to follow the adaptation to changing environments, mobility, and variability in economic strategies employed by different groups of the population. Animal bones and other food sources will be sampled from museum collections. The successful candidate will establish protocols for data collection, extract collagen, carry out stable isotope measurements using state-of- the-art in house IRMS equipment, write research manuscripts for international journals, and be co-author of other interdisciplinary papers with collaborating partners. Compulsory work for the University Museum can include teaching, but also archaeozoology, human osteology, or stable isotope analyses for other projects, instrument maintenance or outreach activities, depending on the qualification and interests of the applicant.
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[Website Norwegian University of Science and Technology]
The Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard (SoHP) announces a postdoctoral appointment at Harvard in the framework of the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM), funded by Getty and with support from the Reich lab at Harvard. We are looking for an exceptionally able archaeologist of Classical civilization who is interested in participating in archaeogenetic and archaeological research into the interaction of Classical and Near Eastern Civilization. The candidate need have no prior experience in ancient DNA or ancient biomolecular research but will want to be curious and open to the new approaches. The postdoc will be paired with another postdoc, an archaeogeneticist, for the 2-year period of the award; we envision that the archaeologist will teach archaeology to the geneticist and serve as an archaeological resource for the lab. S/he will be motivated to learn and to co-author new studies that integrate advanced archaeological research with new archaeogenetic discoveries.
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[Website Harvard University]