Field: Physical Sciences
Host: University of Bristol
Funder: Natural Environment Research Council (UKRI-NERC)
Fellowship Title: What is spinifex resin? Investigation of the source and cultural role of a uniquely Australian natural resource using analytical chemistry
After a 6-year break to raise a family, Fiona has returned to academia to continue her cross-disciplinary research. With a strong background in archaeological science, her current research is in the ethnobotany of Australia, where she will be using analytical chemistry with ethnography and archaeology to address the question, “What is spinifex resin?”
This project stems from Fiona’s NERC-funded doctoral research at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology, University of Oxford, entitled “Exploitation, Technology and Function of Plant Resin in Oceania: Molecular Analysis of Ethnographic Museum Artefacts and the Implications for Archaeological Resin Analysis.”
Her fellowship is based at the Organic Geochemistry Unit, University of Bristol, with brilliant supervisors in both the School of Chemistry, and the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, where she is benefitting from new technical training including high-resolution analytical techniques at the NEIF facility, lecturing and networking opportunities, and career development support.
