Joachim Burger

Joachim Burger
Born (1969-06-27) 27 June 1969
Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, West Germany

Professor Dr Joachim Burger (born 27 June 1969 in Aschaffenburg, West Germany) is a German anthropologist and molecular biologist based at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, where he runs the Palaeogenetics Group at the Institute of Anthropology.

Scientific career

Burger has pioneered the application of ancient DNA technology to resolve anthropological, palaeontological and archaeological questions, particularly concerning humans and domestic animals in the Holocene period. He received his MA in Anthropology at the Institute of Anthropology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, in 1996, and his PhD in Biology at the Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany, in 2000. Since 2000 he has been based at Johannes Gutenberg University, and was made Professor (Juniorprofessor) in Molecular Archaeology in 2005, and Professor in Anthropology in 2010.

The main focus of Burger's research is human population genetics of Europe in the early Holocene, and of Central Asia during Bronze and Iron Age. He applies palaepopulation-genetic methods, i.e. uses ancient DNA data from archaeological skeletons and statistical inference methods to compare these "fossil" DNA sequences amongst each other and to modern-day populations. He pioneered the field of human Palaeopopulation Genetics. Together with an international team he showed in 2009 that the first European farmers were immigrants to the continent and not descendants of local hunter-gatherers. He also works on the population genetics of animal domestication.

Burger is also Editor of the Journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.

Selected scientific publications

See also

References

    External links

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