About me
I am an archaeological scientist interested in the development and application of analytical tools, in particularly chronometric and biomolecular methodologies, to archaeological and palaeoenvironmental investigations.
RESEARCH
My research focuses primarily on the measurement of the passage of time as a means of disentangling recent human evolution, but I recognize the limitations of single-field approaches. Hence I strive for interdisciplinary and engagement with local and international teams.
I specialise in radiocarbon dating, and have extensive experience in sample collection, development of new protocols for decontaminating archaeological material, and the statistical interpretation of AMS results using Bayesian modelling.
More recenetly, I have become interested in the application of peptide mass fingerprinting (also known as ZooMS) for collagenous samples. I have been using ZooMS since 2015 to identify new hominin remains at prehistoric sites.
While the majority of my work focuses on Pleistocene and early Holocene-age sites from Eurasia, I have worked on material from most corners of the planet, from northern Europe to South Africa, and from Siberia to Papua New Guinea.
EDUCATION & CAREER
I obtained a Bachelors degree (BSc in Archaeological Conservation) from the University of Athens (Greece) in 2004.
For 12 years, between 2005-2017, I was based at the University of Oxford (UK) where I obtained my MSc and DPhil degrees in Archaeological Science, followed by two postdoctoral appointments (AHOB and PalaeoChron projects). While at Oxford, I was awarded the William Golding Junior Research Fellowship from Brasenose College, and a Junior Fellowship from Linacre College.
Between 2017-2021, I was Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (now Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology) in Jena (Germany).
I am now Associate Professor in Archaeological Science in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Faculty of Life Sciences, of the University of Vienna (Austria) and Principal Investigator of FINDER, a €2M research project funded by the European Research Council (2017-2024).