David Caramelli

Biography

David Caramelli is Director of the Department of Biology and Full Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florence. He received his diploma in Natural Sciences and in Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. In 1998 he was awarded PhD in Anthropological Sciences with a thesis titled Genetic Characterization of an Etruscan Population. Between 1998 and 2001 he spent research stages at the University of Gottingen, Germany and the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, where he acquired technical skills in the study of ancient DNA. In 2001 he was a research fellow at the Department of Animal Biology and Genetics of the University of Florence. In 2004 he was appointed as a Researcher in Anthropology, and in 2005 he became Professor of Molecular Anthropology at the Faculty of Science at the same university. Since 2005 he has taught Molecular Anthropology for the degree course in Natural Sciences and Science for Cultural Heritage and Bioinformatics of Ancient Genome at the Faculty of Science at the University of Florence. Since 2007 he has also taught Human Ecology for the degree course in Formative Sciences at the faculty of Formative Sciences, and in 2010 he is Professor of Anthropology for the degree of Biology in the Faculty of Science. In 2007 he was named coordinator of the Masters course in Technological Applications for Scientific Investigation.

Research Interest

The researches that I develop together with my collaborators in the Molecular / Paleogenetic Anthropology Laboratory of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, relate to principal analysis of ancient or degraded DNA recaptured by archeological and / or paleontological or not so ancient findings but subjected to degradative phenomena.