Dr Gillian Taylor, Associate Professor – Analytical Chemistry School of Health and Life Sciences Teesside University

As a mark of respect to the late Queen Elizabeth II we will hold a period of silence at the beginning of the meeting.

Soil plays an important role in the degradation of matter.. but what did the Romans do and how do we know? This talk will discuss recent scientific advances and how it can tell us what and how people ate, their home life and farming practices and rituals they could have been using. The talk will also look to the future; can the past inform us and help us shape the way we look at the future?

Dr Gillian Taylor is an Associate Professor at Teesside University, specialising in analytical chemistry, specifically chromatography and mass spectrometry. Prior to Teesside, Gillian was at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, working on Neanderthal dietary analysis and developing methods to unravel paleoenvironments. Her passion in research is for understanding processes which impact upon degradation of archaeological artifacts. Gillian also works with the Vindolanda Trust and now sits as a board member, helping to shape the strategy for a new excavation site, Magna.