Dr. Emese Végh

I am joining the BB-lab at VUB as a FWO postdoctoral research fellow to work on the structural and chemical alterations to the bone through taphonomy/diagenesis and burning to help understand funerary rites in archaeology. This work builds on my DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford, which focused on the diagenesis and thermal stability of bioapatite, bone microbial bioerosion, molecular structure and composition, and biomechanical response of taphonomic bone.

I have recently completed a postdoc in palaeoproteomics on the ERC Finder project at the University of Vienna, developing an algorithm for automated species identification from MALDI-ToF-MS spectra. I am also an Early Career Researcher at the University of Oxford. Currently I am very interested in the environmental factors and age-induced degradation of both the organic and inorganic phases of bone and the interaction between the two fractions, both in a human evolutionary context and in later prehistory, as well as the use of fire in archaeology.

I particularly enjoy data analyses, multivariate statistics, and modeling in Python to find new ways of solving archaeological research questions.