Postdoctoral Research Associate in Ancient DNA

Role

Roman Britannia: Mobility and Society (RoBMobS) is an AHRC funded research project based at the Department of Archaeology at the University of York and the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University. The project aims to explore and characterise diversity and mobility in Britannia, assessing both movement within the province and from other areas of the Empire into Britannia. The project employs interdisciplinary approaches to human remains, including a wide suite of biomolecular techniques and burial archaeology.

We are seeking a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Ancient DNA to join the project. This role will focus on the extraction, analysis and interpretation of ancient genetic data from human skeletal material in order to explore genetic diversity within Britannia, alongside genetic kinship and relatedness within cemetery populations.

This PDRA position will work with Dr Sophy Charlton (Project Co-Lead) at the University of York to support the aDNA work package on the project, but will also work closely with the wider project team based at Cardiff University (Dr David Roberts, Project Lead; Prof. Richard Madgwick, Project Co-Lead; and two PDRAs).

The successful candidate will have a strong track record in the field of ancient DNA analysis and will be responsible for significant aspects of this element of the project, whilst contributing as a team member to the wider research programme. The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to publication and dissemination, including presenting at conferences, working with commercial archaeological units and museum partners, and sharing results with the public.

This is a fixed-term contract for up to 34 months.

Skills, Experience & Qualification needed

• PhD in Biomolecular Archaeology, Ancient DNA, Biology, Genomics or equivalent experience
• Knowledge of ancient DNA or genomic datasets to engage in high quality research
• Experience of ancient DNA laboratory methods (DNA extraction, Illumina library building, targeted enrichment)
• Experience of using computational tools for population genetic analysis, including imputation, as well as standard data tools such as R
• Experience in writing archaeological scientific reports to publication standard in international journals
• Ability to work as part of a team and also independently using own initiative
• Interview date: to be confirmed

For informal enquiries: please contact Sophy Charlton on sophy.charlton@york.ac.uk

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