Professor Rosalie David and Professor Eileen Murphy

Professor Rosalie David is Emerita Professor of Egyptology and Co-Director of the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at The University of Manchester. She has been Director of the Manchester Mummy Project since its inception in 1973, and has established biomedical Egyptology as a new university specialisation, to provide a different approach to understanding ancient Egyptian civilisation. She has lectured around the world, is the author/editor of over 30 books and many papers in academic journals, and has been consultant/contributor for television documentaries. In 2003, she was awarded an OBE for services to Egyptology, and has received Fellowships of The Royal Society of Arts and The Royal Society of Medicine.

Professor Eileen Murphy is Head of Archaeology and Palaeoecology and Co-Director of the Centre for Community Archaeology in the School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast. With a background in osteology, palaeopathology and funerary archaeology, her current research largely involves the study of ancient human skeletal remains and burial practices from Ireland and Russia. She is the author/editor of 12 books, and has published numerous articles in academic journals and books. She has been the editor of the international journal Childhood in the Past since its inception in 2008. She has had a long standing fascination with Takabuti since visiting her in the Ulster Museum as a young child and she was one of the main inspirations that resulted in her pursuing a career in archaeology.

Dr Gerry Millar is a former Northern Ireland GP of the Year. He works in the Southern Trust and is Macmillan GP Advisor in Cancer and Palliative Care for Northern Ireland and Vice-Chair of NI Hospice and Children’s Hospice. He was awarded an MBE for services to Healthcare and Palliative Care in 2013 and also honoured as a Macmillan UK Cancer Fellow. His fascination with the history of medicine began at the age of 12 years and developed into research and lecturing on American Civil War Medicine and particularly, ancient Egyptian Medicine and mummification. This interest, along with research into pioneering, Victorian Egyptologist, Rev Dr Edward Hincks, led to his involvement in the Takabuti Project and 2009 BBC documentary. He is a Visiting Scholar in Queen’s University Belfast and is currently investigating diseases in Post-Medieval Ireland.

Dr John Taylor obtained his PhD from the University of Birmingham with a study of the stylistic evolution of Egyptian coffins of the Third Intermediate Period. Since 1988 he has worked in the Department of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum, where his specialist interests have focused on funerary antiquities, mummification, bronze statuary and the history of Egyptology. He has participated in excavations at el-Amarna, Luxor and Hierakonpolis, and has curated a number of major exhibitions, including ‘Journey through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead and Ancient Lives’, which presented the results of an extensive study of mummies using CT scanning. He has published numerous books and articles, and is currently working on a catalogue of coffins of the 22nd-24th Dynasties in the British Museum.

Professor Paula Reimer is the Director of the 14CHRONO Centre for Climate, the Environment, and Chronology in Archaeology and Palaeoecology, School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast. In 2021 she was awarded the 'Archaeologist of the Year' at the annual Current Archaeology Awards as well as the Archaeological Institute of America’s Pomerance Award for Scientific Contributions to Archaeology. Her research focuses on radiocarbon dating and calibration. From 2002-2020 she led the international IntCal Working Group which provides radiocarbon calibration curves used worldwide to put a calendar time scale on radiocarbon chronologies. She is also interested in radiocarbon offsets between marine or freshwater systems and the atmosphere. Her research outputs reflect the diverse, interdisciplinary nature of her work, which ranges from archaeological science to earth and ocean sciences.

Dr Roger Forshaw was a dental surgeon in general dental practice before taking early retirement. He went on to study Egyptology at the University of Exeter and then at The University of Manchester where he obtained an MSc in Biomedical Egyptology and a PhD in Egyptology. Roger is at present an Honorary Lecturer in Biomedical Egyptology at Manchester and is involved with the new MSc online course in Biomedical Egyptology. His research interests include dental anthropology and dental care in the ancient world, healing practices in ancient Egypt, and a study of the Saite Period in ancient Egypt. His publications include The Role of the Lector in Ancient Egyptian Society (2014; Archaeopress) and a number of academic papers on healing practices, dental care and dental health in ancient Egypt. His latest book Egypt of the Saite Pharaohs, 664-525 BC was published by Manchester University Press in 2019.

Dr Andy Gize is an independent research consultant who specialises in organic geochemistry and petrography. In addition to several collaborative projects in ancient Egyptology with the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at The University of Manchester, his archaeology-based research has included studies of the geology of a late Minoan necropolis and the Stonehenge Bluestones.

Dr Sarah Shrimpton is a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant in Face Lab at the School of Art and Design, Liverpool John Moores University. She has a background in fine art and, after graduating with an MSc in Forensic Art from the University of Dundee, she undertook a number of research positions that enabled her to focus on the recognition of altered facial images. This culminated in a PhD investigating the role of facial features in identity processing of composited faces. With a focus on recognition of faces and facial depictions for forensic scenarios, her research centres around exploring various methods for the creation of facial depictions and synthetic faces, through compositing, and how they are received, perceived and recognised by the public. She has carried out facial depiction work for forensic investigations both in the UK and internationally, and contributes to archaeological depiction work exhibited around the world.

Professor Caroline Wilkinson is the Director of Liverpool School of Art and Design, where she leads Face Lab, a research group at Liverpool John Moores University. She has a background in art and science and, after receiving her PhD from The University of Manchester, she led the Unit of Art in Medicine and received a NESTA Fellowship to develop a 3D computerised facial reconstruction system for use in forensic and archaeological depiction. She moved to Liverpool John Moores University from the University of Dundee, where she was Head of Human Identification in the award-winning Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification and her high-profile facial depiction work includes facial depictions of Richard III, J. S. Bach and Robert the Bruce. She is certified by the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) as a Forensic Anthropologist Level I (craniofacial specialism) and is an experienced practitioner with facial depiction work exhibited in museums around the world.

Dr Konstantina Drosou is a lecturer at the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at The University of Manchester. She studied archaeology in Greece, and went on to do an MSc Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bradford, and a PhD in Evolutionary Biology at The University of Manchester. After completing a two-year post-doctoral position, she was awarded the position of Lecturer in Biomedical Egyptology. She has worked as a field osteoarchaeologist in Greece, Spain and Romania but for the last seven years has been specialising in the genetics of ancient populations. Her research interests involve ancient DNA from archaeological remains for the purposes of disease identification, kinship analysis, and population genetics. Her current research involves the evolution of Schistosomiasis in ancient Egyptian populations.

Professor Anthony Freemont is Emeritus Professor of Pathology at The University of Manchester. Until retirement at the end of March 2021 he was Procter Professor of Pathology, a post he had held for 27 years. He is a researcher within the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology and teacher on the online MSc in Biomedical Egyptology. His major research interest is in the application of molecular pathology techniques to human tissue and body fluids to better understand the nature of disease. Working with colleagues he is now applying these techniques to mummified tissues to identify relationships between individuals and the patterns of disease in ancient Egypt.

Dr Robert Loynes obtained a PhD in Egyptology from The University of Manchester in 2014, after retiring from a career as an orthopaedic surgeon when he was awarded an MBE. Since then he has been involved in continuous research programmes using medical imaging and, in particular, CT scans to analyse mummification techniques and reveal pathology within ancient Egyptian mummies from sources including Egypt, Moscow, Italy, the USA and the UK. Following publication of his thesis he has written chapters for several books and numerous articles on mummification in peer reviewed journals. A regular speaker on the subject of mummification at international conferences, he also speaks to Egyptology societies in the UK and abroad and is in the process of compiling a metadata base of mummy CT scans to enable a more robust discourse on mummification techniques throughout the eras of Egyptian history.

Professor Anthony Freemont is Emeritus Professor of Pathology at The University of Manchester. Until retirement at the end of March 2021 he was Procter Professor of Pathology, a post he had held for 27 years. He is a researcher within the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology and teacher on the online MSc in Biomedical Egyptology. His major research interest is in the application of molecular pathology techniques to human tissue and body fluids to better understand the nature of disease. Working with colleagues he is now applying these techniques to mummified tissues to identify relationships between individuals and the patterns of disease in ancient Egypt.

Dr Robert Loynes obtained a PhD in Egyptology from The University of Manchester in 2014, after retiring from a career as an orthopaedic surgeon when he was awarded an MBE. Since then he has been involved in continuous research programmes using medical imaging and, in particular, CT scans to analyse mummification techniques and reveal pathology within ancient Egyptian mummies from sources including Egypt, Moscow, Italy, the USA and the UK. Following publication of his thesis he has written chapters for several books and numerous articles on mummification in peer-reviewed journals. A regular speaker on the subject of mummification at international conferences, he also speaks to Egyptology societies in the UK and abroad and is in the process of compiling a metadata base of mummy CT scans to enable a more robust discourse on mummification techniques throughout the eras of Egyptian history.

Dr Keith White is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science and a member of the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at The University of Manchester. He was appointed to a lectureship at Manchester in 1981 and retired as Senior Lecturer in 2018. He has published nearly 80 peer-reviewed papers, several book chapters and numerous conference publications in environmental toxicology, aquatic pollution and water quality management. He was instrumental in initiating the water management approaches that were central to the success of the Salford Quays development in Greater Manchester and resulted in the launch of a highly successful environmental consultancy company. He has extensive experience with a number of analytical techniques including quantitative and quantitative trace element analysis, histology, light and electron microscopy and the use of aquatic biota as indicators of environmental stress. He is currently applying his environmental expertise to an examination of water provision in ancient Egypt.

Dr David Tosh has been working as Research Co-ordinator for National Museums NI since 2018, prior to which time he worked in the field of conservation biology. When not learning about ancient Egypt and trying to borrow X-ray machines for projects on ancient mummies, he assists research across all areas of National Museums NI’s collections. Upon gaining a PhD in Ecotoxicology from Queen’s University Belfast, he became interested in the distribution and population status of endangered species. He gained experience in working for the not for profit, government, university and private sectors in Indonesia, Ireland and the UK before hanging up his boots for a family and joined the museum. He continues to pursue an interest in the pine marten – but only at weekends.

Professor Chris Johnson

Pro-Vice Chancellor, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast