Charoula Fotiadou

Doctoral Researcher

Universität Tübingen

Hölderlinstraße 12
D-72074 Tübingen

R S514
charoula.fotiadou@uni-tuebingen.de

Research

“My research interest centers on the bio-cultural evolution of Late Pleistocene and early Holocene European hunter-gatherers, with a particular focus on understanding their demographic history, population structure, and interactions across time and space. I am specifically interested in how genetic ancestry, mobility, and social organization intersect with archaeological and environmental contexts, as well as in reconstructing patterns of genetic relatedness and connectivity among forager groups. During my PhD, I will employ an interdisciplinary methodological framework combining ancient DNA analysis, population genomics, and bioinformatics with archaeological, isotopic, and morphological data. This includes genome-wide analyses (e.g., PCA, admixture modelling, and f-statistics), genetic relatedness inference using allele frequency and identity-by-descent approaches.”

Kurzvita

Since 2026

Doctoral Researcher

Cluster of Excellence HUMAN ORIGINS, University of Tübingen

2023 - present

External Researcher: Uncovering the phenotype of past human populations

Dr. Lara Rubio Arauna, University of Tübingen

Conducted advanced population genetics research. Developed and implemented analysis pipelines in R and Python for studying ancient DNA data.

2021 - 2025

Associated Researcher: Neanderthal aDNA and Demography

Prof. Cosimo Posth, University of Tübingen
Gained experience on aDNA analyses (damage patterns, contamination estimates etc) and bioinformatics tools for reconstructing population histories and genetic relationships.

2020 - 2024

Associated Researcher: Civic Engagement and Service-Learning

Dr. Niki-Iris Nikolopoulos, University of Tübingen

Explored transdisciplinary approaches to civic engagement and service-learning.

2019 - 2021

Master in Natural Science Archeology

Prehistory and Archaeological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen

Thesis: ‚The demographic history of Neanderthals inferred from new mitochondrial DNA genomes‘

2013 - 2018

Bachelor in Archaeology

Department of History and Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Ioannina

Publikationen

Publications

2025: Fotiadou, C.M. et al.. Archaeogenetic insights into the demographic history of Late Neanderthals (PNAS, 2026)

2022: Rösler N. & C.M. Fotiadou, 2022. Service-Learning: A Guideline for Lecturers. ZOERR (http://hdl.handle.net/10900.3/OERSQGBXWNN)

Congress contributions

27.-28.09.2023

‚Acquisition of Transversal Competences with Service-Learning in Higher Education‘ (poster)
6th European Conference on Service-Learning in Higher Education „Future of Service-Learning: Digital Empowerment, Transformational Literacy & Civic Engagement“, LUMSA University, Rome, Italy

16.-18.11.2022

‚Promoting social responsibility through Service-Learning in higher education’. (presentation)
USR Summit 2022: Education and Action for a Sustainable Future, co-organised by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the University Social Responsibility Network (USRN)

30.10.2020

‚Human skeletal analysis on massive grave from Medieval Necropolis of Church of Sant` Angel, District of Sant` Angel, Rome, IX – XIII‘ (presentation) Young Investigator Symporium,
Max-Planck Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (online)

10.-12.03.2019

‚Mobility of archaic Homo species: new data and the contribution of sciences‘ (presentation)

7th Panhellenic Conference of Archeology Students, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece