IIDR Trainee Day

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Piers Mitchell

Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge

Piers works part of the week as a hospital specialist in the NHS in the UK, and part of the week researching ancient diseases in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. He has a strong interest in how parasites affected past populations, how lifestyle changes impacted parasite infection risk, and how ancient civilisations were burdened by parasitic disease. Piers has also studied ancient tuberculosis, leprosy, treponemal disease, bubonic plague and other infectious diseases. In his clinical work Piers cares for children with musculoskeletal infection and is chief investigator for a 10 year long prospective study of musculoskeletal infection in children. He is the research lead for the British Society for Children’s Orthopaedic Surgery, and led in producing the recent UK national guidelines for the investigation and treatment of paediatric msk infection. Piers has been president of the British Society for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology, and also president of the Paleopathology Association (the worldwide organisation for the study of diseases in the past). He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, has over 220 scientific publications, been filmed for 23 TV documentaries, and over 2000 news stories have been written by journalists about his research.