From the 1st to the 10th of October, the Human Ancient DNA, Ancestry and Mobility community is electing new members of the steering committee for a term of one year (November 2026-2027).
Meet the candidates below, then cast your vote here!
Voting will be open between 1st Oct 2026 00:00 and 10th Oct 2026 23:59 (all times in CET).
Candidates
I’m Eman Adel, originally a pharmacist with a career in genomics, bioinformatics, and health informatics. I currently work in Health Informatics and Research & Development at Ensemble Health Partners, and I also work as a Bioinformatics Research Assistant at the Egypt Center for Research and Regenerative Medicine (ECRRM). I contributed to the first preprint of the Egypt Genome Project (EGP), studying the genetic structure of current Egyptians, which has another arm of studying the ancient DNA of royal Egyptian mummies.
I would love to join the HAAM steering committee because I experienced the summer school as a participant, and it showed me the value of bringing together people from different backgrounds who share a passion for population genomics and ancient DNA.
What I bring is a combination of research, teaching, and community building experience. I have experience in population genomics research. I also have been a teaching assistant during my biotechnology master’s degree at the American University in Cairo (AUC), and I enjoy creating an environment for exchanging knowledge. I want to use that perspective to help make the school engaging and inclusive for future participants and to help strengthen the HAAM community beyond the summer school itself.
Erkin Alacamli
Archaeogenomics Group, Estonian Biocentre, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu Tartu, EstoniaI am a 4th-year PhD student in the Archaeogenomics Group at the University of Tartu, focusing on Late Iron Age and Medieval Baltic communities. Since joining HAAM, I have actively participated in community events and have found them valuable, both professionally and personally. Having benefited from this community, I now would like to contribute more meaningfully by joining the steering committee.
In my role in the steering committee, I would like to focus on two priorities. First, broadening the visibility and reach of HAAM events to engage a wider network of human aDNA researchers through small- or large-scale events, primarily targeting early-career researchers from HAAM or other ISBA-related communities. Second, diversifying the range of activities, including social and informal events alongside the research-focused ones, to bring together the members from all career stages and various backgrounds, for a stronger sense of community.
Kawtar El Mohippe
National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage (INSAP) Rabat, MoroccoI am Kawtar El Mohippe, a PhD candidate in Prehistoric Archaeology at the National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage (INSAP) in Rabat, Morocco. I am also a research fellow at the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution andPalaeoenvironment (SHEP) at the University of Tübingen in Germany. My doctoral research focuses on the archaeogenetic study of prehistoric canids in Morocco, combining ancient DNA, stable isotope analysis, and archaeological approaches to study human–canid interactions, mobility, and the origins and development of dogs in North Africa. I would like to join the HAAM Steering Committee because, as a Moroccan researcher working on ancient DNA from North Africa, I see the HAAM community as an important space to strengthen the representation of regions that remain underrepresented in archaeogenetic research. Being part of the committee would allow me to bring perspectives from Morocco and North Africa into discussions within the community, while also helping build stronger connections between researchers working in Africa particularly for early-career researchers and those working with limited access to training and research opportunities, and the wider archaeogenetics community.
Ronan O' Sullivan
KAROL and HuDi-Con Centre of Excellence University of Turku, Department of Biology, Turku, FinlandHi, my name is Ronan James O’Sullivan and I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Turku where I study ancient Finnic genomics. Having changed career directions (I have a PhD in fish eco-evo), I would like to join the steering committee in order to promote initiatives that help other transitional ancient DNA scientists. If elected, I would bring a strong logistical skill set to the committee, having led the organisation of EMPSEB21 and helped organise Oikos Finland 2023.
