Biography
My research uses population genetics to better understand human evolutionary history, including adaptation, genetic demography and archaic introgression. I am interested in how large-scale patterns of genetic variation, over countries and continents, are impacted by local social behaviours such as kinship practices, migration and movement decisions, and social hierarchies. I combine modelling and simulation with information from human genetics and other sources (linguistics, movement ecology, ancient DNA, domesticate genetics and the microbiome) to better understand these processes. My work has a regional focus in South Asia and islands in Southeast Asia.
I will be on Research Leave for Michaelmas and Lent terms 2024/25.
Research
- Human evolutionary genetics
- Social behaviour and genetic diversity
- Non-human genetics and the microbiome
- Hunter-gatherer genetic variation
Ongoing and past research projects:
- 2021-2026: MOBILE: Movement networks and genetic evolution among tropical hunter-gatherers of island Southeast Asia (PI, ERC Starting Grant)
- 2019-2021: Pilot study of Cave Punan hunter-gatherers of Borneo (with Prof. Steve Lansing and Dr Pradiptajati Kusuma)
- 2018-2020: Borneo Human Genome and Microbiome Diversity in Association with Health and Disease (with the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology)
- 2018-2020: Archaic introgression and the evolution of modern humans (NTU Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship)
- 2016-2019: The Indonesian Genome Diversity Project (with the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology)
Teaching and Supervisions
I am involved in the teaching of the following courses:
Paper B1: Humans in Biological Perspective
Paper B4: Comparative Human Biology
Paper B16 – Genomes: Ancient, Modern and Mixed
I am interested in supervising students who wish to study for an MPhil or a PhD in the following topics:
- Genetics of archaic introgression
- Human microbiome diversity and evolution
- Genetic adaptation and signals of selection
- Modelling the genetics of social behaviour
- Human-domesticate coevolution
- Genetics of South Asian cattle
