Bradford professor is awarded prestigious research prize
A university professor has been awarded a prestigious research prize by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany.
Carl Heron, Professor of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bradford, has been honoured with a Humboldt Research Award. The award is presented to international researchers whose discoveries, theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future.
Prof Heron has been awarded 60,000 Euros, which will fund a research period in Germany beginning in September 2014. He will work on the transition from hunting and gathering to farming in northern Europe with a particular focus on the evidence from foods cooked and stored in pottery vessels.
Heron was nominated by Prof Dr Berit Eriksen, Director of the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology, at the Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig and Prof Dr Johannes Müller, University of Kiel. Kiel is a leading centre for archaeology and archaeological sciences in Germany with many state-of-the-art facilities including a radiocarbon dating laboratory.
Prof Heron said: “I would like to thank my colleagues in Germany for nominating me. This is a fantastic opportunity to develop my research interests in Europe.”
Heron, who has spent eleven of the last 15 years either as Head of Department or Dean of School at the University of Bradford, paid tribute to his fellow researchers and to his students.
“In the last 20 years, identifying molecular information from archaeological remains has revolutionised the discipline. UK science has been a prime mover in these developments due to the close co-operation between archaeology and the natural sciences. Archaeological Sciences at Bradford has been active in research and teaching modules in molecular archaeology since the early 1990s and many graduates now hold distinguished academic positions in their own right. Discussing the latest findings with my students over the past 20 years has inspired and motivated me to continue my research."