PhD Julia Becher
Vita
Education
Sept 2021 - Jan 2025
PhD candidate, Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN 'ChemArch' (Early Stage Researcher 9) Cotutelle Programme: University of York, UK (2 years), Université Côte d’Azur, France (1 year); Funding: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Horizon 2020 (No 956351)
PhD dissertation:
‘Pots, People, Place: investigating the use of ceramics in Late Neolithic, Orkney’
Supervisors: Prof. Oliver E. Craig (University of York), Dr Martine Regert (CEPAM, Nice), Prof. Mark Edmonds (University of York)
Defended: 9th Oct 2025 (York), 18th Dec 2025 (Nice)
2016 - 2021
Master of Arts Ur- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie (Archaeology of Prehistory and Early History), Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
Master thesis:
‘Reconstructing vessel use at Lydenburg Heads site, South Africa, using GC-MS and GC-c-IRMS. A critical review combining lipid residue analysis with the faunal and botanical record of the Early Iron Age in South Africa’
Supervisors: Dr Cynthianne Spiteri (University of Tübingen), Prof. Alex Schoeman (University of the Witwatersrand)
since 2016 (with breaks)
Bachelor of Science (Parallel degree) Chemistry
Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
2013 - 2016
Bachelor of Arts Major: Ur- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie und Archäologie des Mittelalters (Archaeology of Prehistory, Early History, and the Medieval Ages)
Minor: Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie (Scientific Archaeology)
Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
Bachelor thesis:
‘The organic artefacts of Sibudu Cave, South Africa’
Supervisor: Prof. Nicholas Conard
Employment
Current position
since Nov 2025
Researcher
Department High-field Magnetic Resonance, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen
Previous
April - Nov 2025Working Student ‘QC Lab Management’, CureVac Tübingen
Dec 2024 - March 2025
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, University of Tübingen, Institute for Older Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology
Sept 2021 - Sept 2024
PhD position - Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN 'ChemArch'
Research assistant positions
Oct 2020 - August 2021Lab Management and Chemical technical assistant (CTA) at the organic residue analysis (GC-FID, GC-MS, GC-C-IRMS), University of Tübingen
March - July 2021
‘Working group Biogeology’, sample preparation for δ15N through compound specific isotopic analysis (CSIA) of amino acids from bone collagen, University of Tübingen
May 2020 - Jan 2021
Library staff member at the Department of Younger Prehistory, Early History and Medieval Ages, University of Tübingen
July 2017 - Sept 2020
ERC-Project, FoodTransforms, human dental calculus sample preparation for TD-/Py-GC-MS; organic residue analysis of pottery samples (GC-FID, GC-MS, GC-C-IRMS), University of Tübingen
Nov - Dec 2016
SFB-Project 1070, RessourcenKulturen, University of Tübingen
Winter 2015
Germolles project, find drawings
July 2014 - March 2016
DFG-Project Sibudu (no. 249148575), find processing management, assisting with publications
Oct - Dec 2014
Vogelherd-Project, find processing management