Current Research:
I am a Marie Sklodowska-Curie PhD fellow with the SeaChanges ITN. I use biomolecular archaeology methods including archaeogenomics and stable isotope analysis to explore the human impact on Atlantic herring populations in northern Europe. I focus specifically on the advent of the commercial herring industry in the North Sea and the Baltic, with a time depth of ~1200 years in the past. Within this project I am assessing the potential for anthropogenic impact on herring evolution and ecology, as well as the changing relationship between humans and the sea throughout dramatic societal changes. This involves collaboration with archaeologists around Europe, including the Netherlands, Poland, the UK, and Estonia, as well as within Norway.
My research is driven by a desire to understand human culture and evolution in all its facets, including those beyond the human.
Supervisor: Dr. Bastiaan Star (CEES, UiO)
Co-Supervisor: Dr. James H. Barrett (Department of Archaeology and Cultural History, NTNU)
Students:
Co-supervisor of Emma Falkeid Eriksen (with Bastiaan Star) in her MSc research on the evolution of Atlantic blue-fin tuna.
Prior Research and Education:
2019 MPhil, University of Cambridge: Applied Biological Anthropology
Supervisor: Jason Hodgson
- Wrote program in python, perl, and R to prove efficacy of novel test statistic in determining regions of the human genome under natural selection
- Volunteered in ancient DNA lab assisting in marine historical ecology project reconstructing ancient whale populations to assess the impact of industrial whaling in the South Sea
2017 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship: A one-year, highly selective grant for the purpose of independent research and purposeful exploration conducted outside of the U.S. Conceived and executed original project exploring the role the sea plays in the construction of personal and cultural identity.
Watson Title: “A Certain Current” | Locations: Guam, Greenland, Greece, Taiwan, Atlantic Ocean
2016 BA, Grinnell College: Anthropology and Chinese
- Conducted solo ethnographic field work in a religious cult in Iowa and the Netherlands to explore the relationship between spirituality and environmental sustainability and the evolution of spiritual movements through the routinization of charisma and schismogenesis
Research interests: Molecular ecology, evolutionary biology, human evolution, the human relationship with the environment, anthropology of religion, intentional communities, seafaring, evolution of human commensalism, gene-culture coevolution, coevolution of humans and domesticates, bioinformatics, hologenomics, palaeoproteomics, stable isotope analysis, multi-omics
Twitter: @lane_atmore