Maria Pala

I graduated in Natural Sciences (Laurea, MSc equivalent) from the University of Sassari, Italy, in 2003 (final Mark 110/110 cum laude).

In 2003 I moved to the Molecular Genetics Institute, CNR of Pavia, Italy, where I worked for one year as a research assistant under the supervision of Prof. L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza on the project “Creation of a cell line bank of the Italian population”.

On January 2008 I obtained my Ph.D. in “Genetic and Biomolecular Science” (University of Pavia) under the supervision of Prof. Antonio Torroni. Dissertation title: "Mitochondrial DNA: a female perspective in human evolution". During my Ph.D. I was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship for "Early-Stage Training in Advanced Genetic Analysis" programme at the University of Leeds. Supervisor: Professor Martin Richards.

Between 2008–2009 I worked, first as a Research Assistant and then as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, at the Laboratory of Human Genetics, Department of Genetics and Microbiology, University of Pavia, under the supervision of Prof. Antonio Torroni.

In 2009 I moved to the University of Leeds, UK, as a Newton Post-Doctoral Fellow, working on the project “Origins and expansion of mitochondrial DNA haplogroup HV and the modern human settlement of West Eurasia”, under the supervision of Prof. Martin Richards, Archaeogenetics Laboratory, Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology (IICB), University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.

In 2011, I was appointed by the University of Huddersfield as a Senior Research Fellow in Archaeogenetics.