Rate My Professor Martin Richards

Professor Martin Richards is Professor of Archaeogenetics in the Department of Physical and Life Sciences at the University of Huddersfield, where he also serves as Director of the Evolutionary Genomics Research Centre. He studied genetics at the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester before moving to Oxford University in 1990 to pursue archaeogenetic research. There, he collaborated on the development of network diagrams for phylogenetic and phylogeographic analysis of human mitochondrial DNA, contributing to influential models of prehistoric settlement in Europe and the Pacific as well as dispersals in Africa. He later held positions at UCL and the University of Leeds, where he taught topics including human evolution, molecular evolution and bioinformatics, before returning to Huddersfield in January 2012 to take up a Research Chair.

His research focuses on applying complete mitochondrial DNA genome variation to archaeogenetic questions, including the routes of modern human dispersal out of Africa and the settlement of Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Europe. He co-edited the book Mitochondrial DNA and the Evolution of Homo Sapiens, published by Springer-Verlag in 2006. Richards maintains an extensive publication record and high citation impact in the fields of human evolution and archaeogenetics.