Rate My Professor Maria Pala

Dr Maria Pala is a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology in the Department of Physical and Life Sciences within the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Huddersfield. She graduated with a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Sassari, Italy, in 2003, achieving the highest mark of 110/110 cum laude. In 2008 she obtained her PhD in Genetic and Biomolecular Science from the University of Pavia, Italy, with a dissertation titled "Mitochondrial DNA: a female perspective in human evolution," under the supervision of Professor Antonio Torroni. During her doctoral studies she held a Marie Curie Fellowship at the University of Leeds. Her subsequent positions included research and postdoctoral roles at the University of Pavia and a Newton Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Leeds focused on the origins and expansion of mitochondrial DNA haplogroup HV. In 2011 she joined the University of Huddersfield as Senior Research Fellow in Archaeogenetics and has since advanced to her current lecturing role. She is also a member of the Evolutionary Genomics Research Centre.

Dr Pala’s research centres on archaeogenetics, ancient DNA analysis, mitochondrial DNA, phylogeography, and human population genetics, with particular emphasis on human population history and evolution. She maintains an active research profile with a Google Scholar h-index of 33 based on over 6,690 citations. Her career trajectory reflects sustained contributions to understanding human evolutionary genetics through interdisciplinary approaches combining molecular biology and archaeology.