Ballot Archive

20 Jul 2017

Candidate Details

Candidate Name

Turi King

Academic degrees, honours etc.

BA Hons, MA Cambridge, MSc. PhD University of Leicester Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association

Profession or occupation

Reader in Genetics and Archaeology

Grounds for election

Dr Turi King read Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge and it was here that she became interested in how genetics could be used to answer questions in history and archaeology. She moved to the University of Leicester to learn molecular genetics, completing her award-winning PhD on the link between British hereditary surnames and genetics with Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, the inventor of DNA fingerprinting, on her PhD panel. Her subsequent work combined history, archaeology and genetics, examining the genetic legacy of the Vikings in England. With her expertise, she was brought onto the King Richard III project in the early stages to lead the DNA identification work: she is now sequencing his genome. She worked closely with the Society of Antiquaries when genetically-determining Richard’s hair and eye colour, matching that information with the earliest portraits of the King, proving that the Arched-frame Portrait was the most accurate portrait of Richard III.

Signatories

The following Fellows have signed this Blue Paper