NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The University of Huddersfield in the UK today announced the creation of the Centre for Evolutionary Genomics with a £1 million gift from the Leverhulme Trust.
The gift for the research center comes as part of the trust's Doctoral Scholarships program, intended to train a new generation of scientists in the UK. Over five years, 15 doctoral candidates and two post-doctoral researchers will carry out wide-ranging research under the supervision of Professor Martin Richards and colleagues. The first cohort of five students will be recruited in early 2015 and will begin their fully funded research in October.
Research topics carried out at the center will include the origins of multi-cellular organisms, the prehistoric peopling and contemporary genetic variation of Atlantic Europe, and identifying DNA from human and animal remains.
Richards, an archaeogeneticist, will head the inter-disciplinary team that will form the Centre for Evolutionary Genomics.