research projects in oxford

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Department of Education

Research projects, project status, research area, research category, research group, effectiveness trial for the evaluation of the mathematical reasoning programme for year 2 pupils using an online professional development training model.

Evaluating the effectiveness of the Mathematical Reasoning Programme for Year 2 pupils when rolled out to around 200 schools using an online professional development training model.

What Matters to Students: Embedding Student Voices in Evaluations to Improve Student Outcomes

The project appraises the role of student voices in access and participation, focusing on how providers engage with students, and their role in improving outcomes.

Oxford Education Deanery Sustainability Team

Project aimed at integrating nature, climate and sustainability teaching in all aspects of school, teacher and professional education.

Analysis of Costs in Traditional and Early Permanence Adoption Routes

Project report exploring the costs of adoption in early permanence and traditional adoption routes

UK secondary school students’ motivations for learning Chinese as a Foreign Language

This study aims to better understand the factors which impact positively and negatively on students’ motivation for learning Mandarin and European Languages in secondary schools.

Online Professional Development for Delivering the Mathematical Reasoning Programme in Year 2

This project aims to assess the effectiveness of delivering training online to teachers and their supporting TAs to deliver the Mathematical Reasoning Programme for Year 2.

Understanding and responding to the needs of kinship families from Black and Asian communities

A study focused on understanding the experiences and needs of kinship carers from Black and Asian communities to provide recommendations for practice and policy

Research on Standards in GCSEs in Wales

Embedding standards in national qualifications

Towards equity focused approaches to EdTech: a socio-technical perspective

This project investigates the relationships between equity, digital technologies and teaching and learning.

Evaluation of the Mockingbird programme

Evaluation of The Fostering Network’s Mockingbird programme, as part of the Department for Education's Supporting Families: Investing in Practice programme

Improving Working Memory Plus Arithmetic (IWM+A)

The project investigates the effectiveness of a structured, 10-week teaching programme designed to improve children’s working memory and understanding of basic numeracy concepts.

Early Educators’ Knowledge of Early Language Pedagogy: How can it be measured and does it matter for child language outcomes?

This study explores relationships between teachers’ language-related pedagogical knowledge and children’s oral language progress across the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

Research at Oxford

Oxford vaccine saved most lives in its first year of rollout

Novel all-in-one vaccine developed to tackle future coronavirus threats

How to mobilise $100 trillion wisely: Oxford course on sustainable finance

True planet (2021).

Expose ‘greenwashing’ but do not ignore nature-based solutions to climate change - insists Oxford expert

Expert Comment: We must break free of fossil fuel Stockholm Syndrome

New cross-sector sustainable energy transition hub opens with energy crisis forum

Coronavirus research (2020).

COVID-19 vaccine protects people of all body weights from hospitalisation and death

Com-COV study supports flexible priming intervals in standard/mixed schedules

Higher rate of COVID-19 death before vaccination linked to certain common inflammatory immune conditions

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Research Programme on AI & Work

This programme supports research in the sphere of AI & Work.

Research Programme on AI, Government and Policy

This programme supports research on AI, Government and Policy.

The Science of Startups Initiative

This project aims to reveal the determinants of success in entrepreneurship, startups and innovation ecosystems using data science and qualitative research methods.

The Radicalisation of Sweden’s Image

This project analyses Sweden's depiction online and in news media by foreign radical groups and how these depictions, in turn gains visibility in Swedish media

Programme on Adolescent Well-Being in the Digital Age

This programme addresses the assumptions that the overall mental well-being of young people is undergoing a pronounced period of decline and that digital technologies might be driving this trend.

Fairwork United States

This project will examine how the growth of gig work in the United States can contribute to growing inequalities, and develop a framework for understanding best practice for fairer work standards.

The Emerging Laws of Oversight

This project asks how laws and regulations can be improved to promote the effectiveness of human oversight in automated decision-making and better protect people from harm.

Programme on Democracy and Technology

DemTech investigates the use of algorithms, automation, and computational propaganda in public life.

Towards equity focused approaches to EdTech: a socio-technical perspective

This project investigates the relationships between equity, digital technologies and teaching and learning.

Advancing medical machine learning to predict inflammatory arthritis

This project will develop useful and responsible machine learning methods to achieve real-world early detection and personalised disease outcome prediction of inflammatory arthritis.

Understanding Video Game Play and Mental Health

This project will collect and share detailed behavioural game data donated by players to help us understand how the quality and quantity of online play shapes human motivation and mental health.

AI is not photography: AI, cultural categories, and occupational legitimacy.

The emergence of AI image generation tools raises questions about their impact on creative professionals. This project seeks to work with professional photographers to explore the impact of this technology on their occupational legitimacy.

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Our researchers work across the full range of biomedical and clinical sciences, from the molecule to large population studies. The excellence of our research is recognised by our top placing in international league tables.

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From clinical trials to new challenges in medical ethics, our research revolves around the difference it can make to people’s lives around the world. 

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Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in health and social care is research being carried out with members of the public, rather than for them.  

Research News

Oxford awarded £9m for the next generation of cancer experts

5 April 2024

Blood tests for diagnosing dementia a step closer

Colistin resistant bacteria found in mothers and newborn babies in Nigeria

28 March 2024

Risk factors for faster aging in the brain revealed in new study

27 March 2024

New funding for development of world's first lung cancer vaccine

22 March 2024

All Research Projects

The Department of Sociology carries out a variety of research projects, through independent research grants and fellowships and through our research centres. Research topics range from social stratification and corporate human rights abuses, to time use, resilience to economic shocks, and criminology. These projects are funded internally and externally by research councils, research academies and trusts, charitable organisations and corporations. This page highlights our current, funded research projects. Please click on the links for more details

Contact us  if you are interested in collaborating with the Department or have a specific area of research you would like to explore.

CURRENT PROJECTS

Using AND between your search terms narrows your search as it instructs the database that all your search terms must appear (in any order).

For example, Engineering science AND Robotics

Oxford e-Research Centre

Oxford e-Research Centre | Projects

Oxford e-Research Centre provides a world-leading environment for our professional researchers and engineers to work on interdisciplinary projects aimed at advancing our scientific knowledge and our understanding of the world around us.

Our projects are scientific endeavors undertaken with the aim of answering a research question. In general, basic research includes documentation, discovery, and development of methods and systems for the advancement of knowledge. Applied research refers to a direct and non-systematic process, aimed at providing a solution to a specific problem.

Our expertise spans across data science domains, and delivers novel methodological, technical, social and policy advancements across disciplines.

Selected Research Projects

Beethoven in the House: Digital Studies of Domestic Music Arrangements

BY-COVID: Making COVID-19 data open and accessible to everyone

Climateprediction.net: The world’s largest climate modelling experiment

ELIXIR-UK: FAIR Data Stewardship training

Exaggeration, cohesion, and fragmentation in on-line forums

FAIRplus helps make life science data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable

NeEDS (Network of European Data Scientists)

PrecisionTox. Protecting humans & environment from harmful effects of chemicals

Project LEO – Local Energy Oxfordshire

RAMP VIS. Visualization & Visual Analytics in Support of Modelling the Pandemic

Square Kilometre Array (SKA): Building the world's largest radio telescope

Software Sustainability Institute. Sustainable software for world-class research.

Research Projects

Research Projects

• Current Projects

Completed Projects

• Project Resources

Aphrodisias

Funded by : sponsors listed here

Principal Investigator : Prof Bert Smith

CAVES Africa Project

Funded by: Leverhulme Trust

Principal Investigator: Prof Nick Barton

Celtic Coin Index Digital (CCID) project

Principal Investigator:   Prof Chris Gosden

EAMENA: Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa

Funded by: The Arcadia Fund, and, the Cultural Protection Fund

Principal Investigator: Prof Andrew Wilson

EXPLO: Exploring the dynamics and causes of prehistoric land use change in the cradle of European farming

Funded by:  ERC (SYNERGY Project)

Oxford Principal Investigator: Prof Amy Bogaard

Sir John Evans (1823–1908) and the Hallstatt Collection at the Ashmolean Museum

Funded by: The Prehistoric Society Collections Study Award

Principal Investigator:  Dr Courtney Nimura

Handmade: Understanding Creative Gesture in Pottery Making

Funded by: ERC

Principal Investigator:  Dr. Lambros Malafouris

HEIR - Historical Environment Image Resource

Funded by : Revan & David Logan Foundation. Citizen Science Alliance, John Fell OUP Research Fund

Co-Investigator : Dr S Crawford and Dr K Ulmschneider

HORSEPOWER: China, Mongolia and the steppe

Principal Investigator: Professor Chris Gosden

Jaguars, Raptors and the Patterns of War: 14th - 18th century northeastern South American Indigenous Sculptural Arts

Funded by:  Gerda Henkel Stiftung

Principal Investigator: Dr Joanna Ostapkowicz

Oxford Centre for Asian Archaeology, Art, and Culture

Funded by: 

Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology (OCMA)

Funded by : Hilti Foundation

Principal Investigators: Prof Andrew Wilson and Dr Damian Robinson

PACEN: Archaeological Project of Central Nicaragua

Funded by:  

Principal Investigator: Dr Alexander Geurds

PALAEOBARN : Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network

Funded by: various

Principal Investigator : Prof Greger Larson

Raja Ampat Archaeological Project

Funded by: Various Principal Investigator: Dr Dylan Gaffney

Silver and the Origins of the Viking Age

Principal Investigator: Dr Jane Kershaw

Understanding Authenticity in China's Cultural Heritage

Funded by: Various

Principal Investigators: Dr Anke Hein and Dr Christopher Foster

AGRICURB - The Agricultural Origins of Urban Civilization

Principal investigator: Prof Amy Bogaard 

Androna/Andarin: The Oxford Project

Principal Investigator: Dr Marlia Mango

AHOB - The Ancient Human Occupation of Britain

Funded by: LeverhulmeTrust

Investigator: Prof Tom Higham

Architectures of Displacement: Exploring the lived experience of temporary accommodation for refugees in the Middle East and Europe.

Funded by: ESRC/AHRC

Principal Investigators: Tom Scott-Smith and Prof Dan Hicks

Atlas of Hillforts Project

Funded by: AHRC

Co-Investigator: Prof G Lock and Dr J Pouncett

BALMS: Bronze Age Landscapes and Metalwork in Sweden

Funded by: Fell Fund

Co-Investigator: Dr Courtney Nimura

Crop stable isotope ratios: New approaches to palaeodietary and agricultural reconstruction

Principal Investigator: Prof Amy Bogaard

CUISINE: An innovative approach for the study of culinary practices in past societies

Funded by: European Commission (Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Actions 2015)

Principal Investigator: Dr Juan José García-Granero

Cultivating Societies

Funded by: The Heritage Council (Ireland)

Co-Invesigator: Prof Amy Bogaard & Prof Rick Schulting

Dating of the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in western Europe using ultrafiltration AMS radiocarbon

Funded by: NERC

Principal Investigator: Prof T Higham

A Diet for all Seasons: the role of intra-annual variability in the evolution of hominin diet in East Africa

Funded by: NERC

Principal Investigator: Prof Julia Lee-Thorp

Dorchester-on-Thames (Field school excavation)

Funded by: List of sponsors 

Principal Investigator: Prof C Gosden and Prof H Hamerow

The Easter E.G. Project: Shifting Baselines and Changing Perceptions of Cultural and Biological “Aliens”

Funded by: AHRC

Principal Investigators:   Prof Greger Larson

Ebb and Flow

Funded by: Leverhulme

Principal Investigator: Prof Rick Schulting

Economic integration and cultural survival at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey

Funded by: National Science Foundation

Principal Investigator:   Prof Amy Bogaard

English Landscape and Identities (EngLaId)

Principal Investigator: Prof Chris Gosden

The Environmental Archaeology of Pompeii and Herculaneum

Principal Investigator: Prof Mark Robinson

European Celtic Art in Context: Exploring Celtic art and its eastern links

Feedsax: feeding anglo saxon england. the bioarchaeolgy of an agricultural revolution..

Funded by: ERC 

Principal Investigator: Prof Helena Hamerow

FLAME: Flow of Ancient Metals across Eurasia

Funded by: ERC

Principal Investigator: Prof Mark Pollard

Gallo-Belgic Pottery in Britain

Funded by: Leverhulme Research Grant

Principal Investigator: Prof Sir Barry Cunliffe

The Jacobsthal Archive Project - Persecution and Survival

Funded by: Heritage Lottery Fund, and, the Reva and David Logan Foundation

Co-Investigator: Prof C Gosden

Knossos Gypsades Excavation

Principal Investigator:

Lake Suigetsu 2006 Varved Sediment Core Project

Co-Investigator: Prof C Ramsey and Dr J-L Schwenninger

Click on the project titles below to access various online resources from these past projects.

OXALID - Oxford Archaeological Lead Isotope Database

The OXALID database published on this website will include lead isotope data for ore deposits and archaeological artefacts analysed at the Isotrace Laboratory of the University of Oxford in the years 1978-2001. The data for ores was partly published in the journal ' Archaeometry' in the years 1995-1998, much of the other data included in OXALID has also been published, but it is believed that bringing together all these data on one website in digital format will provide a useful resource for students and academics using lead isotope provenance studies for tracing the development of patterns of exploitation and trade of  mineral based man made materials.

Danebury Environs Project

Living landscapes - exploring neolithic ireland and its broader context, a conference at queen's university belfast 31st may - 1st june 2007, organisers: nicki j. whitehouse¹, rick schulting² and meriel mcclatchie³.

¹ Archaeology and Palaeoecology, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN. Email:  [email protected] ² School of Archaeology, University of Oxford. 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2PG. Email:  [email protected] ³ Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY. Email:  [email protected]

The links below are to extended abstracts provided by the authors.

Rick Schulting and Nicki Whitehouse —  Living Landscapes: An Introduction

Alison Sheridan — Latest thoughts on the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Ireland and Britain: a tale of French connections

Lydia Zapata and Alfonso Alday —  The Early Neolithic in Northern Iberia

Sue College and James Connolly — The development and spread of Neolithic crop based agriculture from southwest Asia to northwest Europe

Amy Bogaard — Assessing the nature and role of Neolithic cultivation in central Europe and Britain 

Meriel McClachtie —  Cultivating Societies: assessing the evidence for cereal remains in Ireland

Richard Tipping, Althea Davies, Hilary Murray, Jane Bunting and Sandra Winterbottom —  Special Places for Special Foods? Cereal Cultivation around an early Neolithic Timber Hall at Warren Field, Crathes, Eastern Scotland

Erika B.A. Guttmann —  Geoarchaeology in the Céide Fields: assessing the nature and intensity of Neolithic land use

Conor Brady —  A Landscape Survey of the Newgrange Environs: earlier prehistoric settlement at Brú na Bóinne, Co. Meath

Michael O’Connell, Karen Molloy and Anette Overland —  New Perspectives on Neolithic Impact in Ireland

John Ó’Néill — Some thoughts on wild mammal ecology in Neolithic Ireland

Richard P. Evershed — Lipids as carriers of anthropogenic signals from prehistory

Finbar McCormick — Cattle and ritual in early Neolithic Ireland

Jessica Smyth — “Our Hidden Neolithic? Following the paper trail...”

Niall Roycroft —  Neolithic salmon or beef?

Cormac McSparron — Irish Rectangular Neolithic Houses – a short-lived phenomenon?

Gordon Noble —  Living Landscapes: Woodscapes in the Neolithic of Northwest Europe

Gabriel Cooney — Working with stone, making Neolithic landscapes

The organisers gratefully acknowledge the National Roads Authority (Republic of Ireland), the School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology (Queen’s University Belfast) for supporting the meeting, and the Institute of Archaeology (University of Oxford) for hosting the website.Rick Schulting and Nicki Whitehouse — Living Landscapes: An Introduction

Database for Gallo-Gelgic Pottery in Britain

The Gallo-Belgic pottery project was undertaken  between 2003 and 2006. The project was funded by a Leverhulme Research grant administered through the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford University under the auspices of Barry Cunliffe.

One of the principal aims of the project was to compile a corpus of Gallo-Belgic pottery (terra nigra and terra rubra) found in Britain. An essential part of this work was  to create a digital record of all known potter name stamps and marks. The data presented in the  web site represents the first stage of dissemination. A monograph outlining the background to the industry, its forms and fabrics, chronology distribution and an interpretation of the results is currently in preparation.

To access the database visit the project website

Roman Provincial Coinage Database

The aim of the Roman Provincial Coinage series was to produce a standard typology of the provincial coinage of the Roman Empire from its beginning in 44 BC to its end in AD 296/7. The current Roman Provincial Coinage Online project is confined to the Antonine period (AD 138–192), but it is intended that it will form a model for putting other periods online in the future.

The database is based on the ten most important and accessible collections in the world, and on all published material. It comprises one of the largest collections of images and related inscriptions from the ancient world which is searchable by iconography, place, and time.

The database contains information on 13,729 coin types, based on 46,725 specimens (9,061 of which have images).

Access the database here

The Novum Inventorium Sepulchrale: Anglo-Saxon Graves and Grave Goods from Kent

The county of Kent is exceptionally rich in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. Systematic excavations of some of these cemeteries in the 18th and early 19th centuries provided a wealth of finds that reflect Kent's close political and economic ties to the Frankish world in the 5th to 7th centuries. Excavations by the Revd Bryan Faussett in 1757-73 uncovered c. 750 graves from sites at Crundale, Guilton, Kingston Down, Bishopsbourne, Barfrestone and Sibertswold Downs, Bekesbourne and Chartham Down. Further excavations, in particular those carried out at Bifrons and Sarre in the 19th century, raised the number of excavated graves to well over 1000. The bulk of information was made available to subscribers in the Inventorium Sepulchrale (Faussett 1856) and in the journal Archaeologia Cantiana.

In 1961, the need to re-publish this important material to a modern standard led Sonia Hawkes of the University of Oxford's Institute of Archaeology to undertake the publication of Kentish cemeteries as the first stage of a national monograph series, the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Graves and Grave-Goods. Work carried out between 1961 and 1971 dealt with the c. 1140 graves and large numbers of unassociated objects from Bifrons, Sarre and the seven sites excavated by Faussett, resulting in an extensive archive comprising object descriptions, drawings, photographs and X-rays. The Bifrons burials have been posthumously published elsewhere (Hawkes 2000). This website, made possible by a grant from the is Arts and Humanities Research Council, makes the remainder of the archive widely available for the first time. It is hoped that it will enable future generations of researchers to gain a better understanding of the origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Visit the project website  and access the database here

Hillforts of the Ridgeway

Directed by Gary Lock and Chris Gosden

The fieldwork for this project took place between the years 1994 and 2000 and formed the training excavation for archaeology students at Oxford University, both full-time BA Archaeology and Anthropology and part-time Continuing Education students.

The work focussed on three hillforts on the Ridgeway in southern Oxfordshire:

• Uffington Castle and White Horse Hil (1994-1995)  
• Segsbury Camp (1996-1997) 
• Alfred’s Castle (1988-2000)  

Our interest is in the creation and development of these three major foci of activity through the later prehistoric and Romano-British periods and how they articulated with the landscapes around them. This area is rich in archaeological evidence for these periods and we have attempted to interpret our findings within this wider context of landscape understanding. For our ideas on how the landscape works in creating history see:

Gosden, C. and G. Lock 1998 Prehistoric histories, World Archaeology. 30.1, pp2-12.

And for a relational approach to landscape see:

Gosden, C. and G. Lock In press. The aesthetics of landscape on the Berkshire Downs, in C. Haselgrove and R. Pope (eds) The earlier Iron Age in Britain and the near continent. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

In 2001 this project transformed into the Vale and Ridgeway Project and the excavation shifted to Marcham/Frilford in the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire.

The Le Yaudet Project, Ploulec'h, Côtes d'Armor, France

Directors: Barry Cunliffe and Patrick Galliou

For full details, together with PDF files and appendices.  Please visit the main project website :

http://projects.arch.ox.ac.uk/LYP1.html

Le Yaudet is a granite promontory guarding the estuary of the river Léguer on the north coast of Brittany. In medieval documents it is known as the ‘old city’ – a memory perhaps of its late Roman fortifications.

Archaeological material, in particular coins, found in the nineteenth century, focused attention on the site and in the 1950s and early 1960s some limited excavations were undertaken.

A new programme of research excavations began in 1991 and continued annually until 2002. The work was a Franco-British collaboration involving the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford and the Centre de recherche bretonne et celtique, Université de Bretagne Occidentale and was directed by Barry Cunliffe and Patrick Galliou.

The excavation showed that the promontory had been in use almost continually since the Neolithic period. There is some evidence to suggest that it may have been defended in the Late Bronze Age. In the Late Iron Age a massive rampart (of three structural phases) defended the landward approach with a lesser rampart following the cliff edge.

Occupation continued into the Roman period and in the late third century a masonry wall was built following the line of the earlier rampart. There is little evidence of activity in the first half of the fourth century but by around AD 400 the site was again in active use and has been occupied ever since. The excavation produced extensive evidence of settlement and agricultural activities from the fifth to eleventh centuries and of village development thereafter.Several of the houses still inhabited date from the sixteenth century when there was extensive rebuilding in stone.

Le Yaudet today is a living village clustered around a chapel. The rest of the headland belongs to the Commune and is managed as a cultural and natural history resource. It is a place of great beauty and tranquillity with incomparable views of the sea and the Léguer valley.

There is little to see of its distant past but the main Iron Age rampart is an impressive structure and parts of the Roman wall survive particularly at the north-east corner. The chapel was largely rebuilt in the mid-nineteenth century but the houses which cluster around it are much older some dating back to the sixteenth century. One intriguing feature is the Mur de Pêcherie – a massive wall cutting off the narrow inlet to the west. It almost certainly represents a barrage to support one or more tidal mills and dates to the early medieval period.

Janiculum Mills Excavation

Roman water-mills on the Janiculum Hill, Rome

Prof. Andrew Wilson

At the invitation of the American Academy in Rome, and with the kind permission of the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma, a 5-week excavation season was undertaken in June and July 1998 to investigate the Aqua Traiana and a large Roman water-mill complex in the Academy's parking lot, on the Janiculum Hill in Rome. The 1998 season was funded by the American Academy, the Packard Foundation and the Craven Committee of Oxford University. The mills were already known from observations by R. Lanciani in the 1880s, and from small-scale rescue excavations by Prof. Malcolm Bell during the laying of electricity and gas lines in the Via Medici in 1990 and 1991. 

The project continued with an excavation season from 27th June to 30th July, 1999, funded by the American Academy, the Packard Foundation, the Oppenheim Foundation, and the Craven Committee of Oxford University. Excavations have now ceased and the project is being written up; a preliminary report (in Italian) appeared in the magazine Forma Urbis  in February 2000, and an interim report (in English) will appear in Memoirs of the American Academy 45 (2001).Visit the project website to access the excavation reports. 

Analytical Data for Islamic Ceramics

For all the tables click here

Some 1200 Islamic pottery sherds from Egypt (Fustat and the Cairo region, Qusier, Aswan), Iran (Susa), Iraq (Samarra, Nineveh, Kish, Hira), and Syria (Ma'arrat al Numan, Queiq, Meskene, Raqqa) spanning the period from the 8th to 14th centuries AD have been analysed using a combination of X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) operated in air for the glazes, and either atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) or proton induced X-ray emission (PIXE) for the bodies (Table 1). The project was directed, and all the glaze analyses undertaken, by the late Alexander Kaczmarczyk. Following on from his previous studies of faience from Egypt and the Near East (Kaczmarczyk and Hedges 1983, Kaczmarczyk 2007), the emphasis of this study has been the analysis of the glaze colorants. Since a high proportion of the pottery is polychrome, several glaze analyses were undertaken for each sherd so that the total number of glaze analyses is some 2600.

For each of the groups of Islamic ceramics listed in Table 1, tables are provided giving glaze data (wt% oxides) grouped by colour together with average compositions for each colour group (Table A); glaze data grouped by sherd (i.e., all analyses for each sherd brought together) together with information on glaze type and body type (where available) for each sherd (Table B); and body compositions (wt% oxides) plus body type for those groups for which these data are available (Table C). A preliminary interpretation of these analytical data in terms of the choice of glaze type, body type and colorants is provided by Tite (in press).

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES

A high proportion of the sherds analysed were provided by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Musée du Louvre in Paris. In the case of Egypt, Kaczmarczyk also collected sherds from relevant archaeological sites, and in particular, from Fustat near to present day Cairo. In addition, Donald Whitcomb provided a group of sherds from his excavations at Qusier al-Qadim on the Egyptian Red Sea coast. A high proportion of the sherds collected by Kaczmarczyk and those provided from Qusier al-Qadim are available for further study in the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art (RLAHA) in Oxford, together with photographs (Table 2).

The glaze analyses were made on the glaze surface, or sometimes the glaze edge, using XRF operated in air, and were therefore non-destructive. However, since the analyses were made in air, data were obtained only for elements with atomic number greater than potassium, and therefore, no data are available for the light elements (i.e., sodium, magnesium, aluminium and silicon). On the basis of the different compositions observed for glaze analyses undertaken on a single sherd, the absolute errors ranged from 0.5-3 wt% for oxides present up to about 15 wt%, to 5-10 wt% for oxides present from about 15 wt% upwards. The detection limits varied somewhat from oxide to oxide but were typically about 0.05 wt%.

For the body analyses, which are not available for all the sherds, small samples were drilled from the sides of the sherds, and these were analysed either using AAS in the RLAHA in Oxford, or using PIXE performed with the ALGAE particle accelerator in the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France (C2RMF) based at the Musée du Louvre.

GLAZE TYPES

Since the light elements have not been analysed, the only major glaze components for which there are analytical data are lead oxide, potash and lime. Comparison of the XRF data for those glazes that have also been analysed in polished section in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) using energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) (Mason and Tite 1997; Mason 2004) indicates reasonable agreement for those oxides (PbO, K 2 O, CaO, SnO 2  and FeO) that were analysed by both methods (Tite, in press). Because the concentration of soda, which is the dominant alkali in Islamic glazes, could not be determined, the different glaze types used are defined entirely on the basis of their lead oxide contents, with the fully quantitative glaze analyses for Islamic glazes (Mason 2004) being used as a guide. Thus, the Islamic glazes were subdivided into the following four types: alkali-lime glazes (<2 wt% PbO), low lead-alkali glazes (2-9.9 wt% PbO), lead-alkali glazes (10-35 wt% PbO), and high lead glazes (>35 wt% PbO).

Each of these glaze types can be further subdivided into transparent and opacified. Other than those colorants that themselves act as opacifiers (i.e., lead antimonate, hematite, chromite), the opacifier used was tin oxide (Mason and Tite 1997). The observed tin oxide contents in the glazes range from less than 0.1 wt% up to about 16 wt% SnO 2 . However, in the glaze composition tables, tin opacified glazes are defined as those containing greater than 1 wt% SnO 2 . Although 1 wt% SnO 2  is not sufficient to produce an opaque glaze, it is sufficient for some tin oxide to survive as particles within the glaze rather than all being in solution. Also, this concentration is clearly associated with the deliberate addition of tin oxide to the glaze rather than the tin oxide being incorporated as an impurity with, for example, bronze used as the source of the copper colorant.

Islamic ceramic bodies are of two primary types; that is, quartz and clay. Quartz or stonepaste bodies comprise typically ten parts quartz sand or crushed quartz, one part glass frit and one part white clay (Mason and Tite 1994). The clay bodies can be further subdivided into calcareous and non-calcareous depending on their lime contents. Thus, the Islamic bodies are made up of the following three types: quartz bodies which contain >75 wt% SiO 2 , with the great majority >85 wt% SiO 2  (typically, <8 wt% Al 2 O 3  and <9 wt% CaO); calcareous clay bodies which contain >6 wt% CaO, with the great majority >10 wt% CaO (typically, >6 wt% Al 2 O 3  with majority >10 wt% Al 2 O 3 ); and non-calcareous clay bodies which contain, typically, <6 wt% CaO, and >12 wt% Al 2 O 3 .

COLOURS AND COLORANTS

The starting point for specifying the colours used in the decoration of the Islamic ceramics are the descriptions and groupings provided by Kaczmarczyk. However, the yellow, green and black colour groups specified by Kaczmarczyk have been subdivided on the basis of the glaze compositions of individual sherds. Thus, the yellow group has been subdivided into those containing antimony, which were coloured and opacified by lead antimonate, and those from which antimony was absent, and which were probably coloured by iron oxide. Similarly the green group has been subdivided into those containing antimony, which were coloured and opacified by a combination of copper oxide and lead antimonate, and those from which antimony was absent. These latter have been further subdivided into those containing less than about 0.5 wt% CuO which were probably partly coloured by iron oxide, and those containing greater than 0.5 wt% CuO which were coloured by copper oxide by itself. Finally, the black group has been subdivided into those coloured by chromium oxide, most probably in the form of chromite particles (FeCr 2 O 4 ), and those from which chromium was absent, and which were probably coloured by a combination of iron and manganese oxides.

Overall, the glazes are subdivided into the following colour groups:

• Transparent/translucent
• Lustre (including yellow, green, brown and red lustre)
• Yellow (PbSb) (lead antimonate colorant)
• Yellow (iron colorant?)
• Green (PbSb) (copper plus lead antimonate colorant)
• Green (<0.5 wt% CuO) (iron plus copper colorant)
• Green (>0.5 wt% CuO) (copper colorant)
• Turquoise-blue (copper colorant)
• Dark blue (cobalt colorant)
• Purple (manganese colorant)
• Brown (iron plus manganese colorant)
• Red (hematite colorant?)
• Black (Fe-Mn) (iron plus manganese colorant)
• Black (Cr) (chromite colorant)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Musée du Louvre, Paris are thanked for the loan of sherds for analysis, and the RLAHA in Oxford and C2RMF in Paris are thanked for providing access to the necessary analytical facilities. The glaze analyses were undertaken using XRF by Alexander Kaczmarczyk at both the RLAHA and the C2RMF. The body analyses were undertaken either using AAS by Helen Hatcher who was working as a Research Assistant at the RLAHA, or using PIXE by Josefina Pérez-Arantegui (currently lecturer at IUCA, University of Zaragoza) who was working as Visiting Research Fellow at the C2RMF.

Kaczmarczyk, A., 2007, Historical and regional variations in composition, in  Faïences et matières vitreuses de l'Orient ancient , (ed. A. Caubet), 29-37, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Kaczmarczyk, A. and Hedges, R. E. M., 1983,  Ancient Egyptian faience: an analytical survey of Egyptian faience from Predynastic to Roman times , Aris and Phillips, Warminster.

Mason, R. B., 2004,  Shine like the sun , Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

Mason, R. B. and Tite, M. S., 1994, The beginnings of Islamic stonepaste technology,  Archaeometry ,  36 , 77-91.

Mason, R. B. and Tite, M. S., 1997, The beginnings of the tin-opacification of pottery glazes,  Archaeometry ,  39 , 41-58.

Tite, M. S., in press, The technology of glazed Islamic ceramics using data collected by the late Alexander Kaczmarczyk,  Archaeometry .

KEY TO DATA PRESENTED IN DATA TABLES (A-C)

The  sources  of the sherds analysed are as follows:

• ASH - Ashmolean Museum
• LOUV - Musée du Louvre
• ALX - collected by Alexander Kaczmarczyk
• WHIT - Qusier al-Qadim excavations

The  glaze types  for the Islamic ceramics are as follows:

• AL - alkali-lime glazes (PbO <2 wt%)
• LLA - low lead-alkali glazes (PbO = 2-9.9 wt%)
• LA - lead-alkali glazes (PbO = 10-35 wt%)
• HL - high lead glazes (PbO >35 wt%)
• TO - tin-opacified glazes (SnO 2  >1 wt%)

The  body types  for the Islamic ceramics are as follows:

• Q - quartz bodies containing >75 wt% SiO 2 , with the great majority >85 wt% SiO 2  (typically, <8 wt% Al 2 O 3  and <9 wt% CaO)
• CC - calcareous clay bodies containing >6 wt% CaO, with the great majority >10 wt% CaO (typically, >6 wt% Al 2 O 3 with majority >10 wt% Al 2 O 3 )
• NC - non-calcareous clay bodies containing, typically, <6 wt% CaO, and >12 wt% Al 2 O 3

Experimental Procedures

A high proportion of the sherds analysed were provided by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Musée du Louvre in Paris. In the case of Egypt, Kaczmarczyk also collected sherds from relevant archaeological sites, and in particular, from Fustat near to present day Cairo. In addition, Donald Whitcomb provided a group of sherds from his excavations at Qusier al-Qadim on the Egyptian Red Sea coast.

Read more …

Key to Tables

Key to Islamic ceramics tables

Neanderthals in Context. A report of the 1995-1998 excavations at Gorham's & Vanguard Caves, Gibraltar

Barton, R.N.E., Stringer, C.B. and Finlayson, J.C. (eds.), (2012), Neanderthals in Context. A report of the 1995-1998 excavations at Gorham’s and Vanguard Caves, Gibraltar.

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Critical Points of Polynomials With Roots on the Unit Circle

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Fan Ge, Steven M Gonek, Critical Points of Polynomials With Roots on the Unit Circle, International Mathematics Research Notices , Volume 2024, Issue 7, April 2024, Pages 5434–5457, https://doi.org/10.1093/imrn/rnad152

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Let |${\mathcal {L}}(u)$| be a polynomial with all its roots on the unit circle. We establish an “angle duality” theorem relating the roots and critical points of |${\mathcal {L}}(u)$|⁠ . As an application, we prove that if there is a large gap between roots of |${\mathcal {L}}(u)$|⁠ , then most critical points of |${\mathcal {L}}(u)$| lie close to the unit circle. We also use our result to strengthen Sendov’s well-known conjecture for these special polynomials. Finally, we prove a sharp estimate for the location of the critical point near a small gap between roots of |${\mathcal {L}}(u)$|⁠ .

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Defense award launches Purdue project to strengthen cyber-physical systems 

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Hiccups and failures of consumer cyber-physical systems like smart gadgets and appliances are inconvenient and annoying. But in mission-critical applications for the Department of Defense, any system weakness or flaw could have serious consequences, such as disruption, damage or even loss of life.

To help mitigate the problem, a group of Purdue University researchers has launched a multidisciplinary project to model, simulate and analyze cyber-physical systems (CPS), with the goal of rendering such systems more robust and making analysis of the systems more scalable and effective. Code named FIREFLY, the multiphase $6.5 million project is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under its FIRE program (Faithful Integrated Reverse-engineering and Exploitation).

“Cyber-physical systems are everywhere, with computing, control and communication capabilities increasingly equipped for today’s physical systems and infrastructures,” says Dongyan Xu, the Samuel Conte Professor of Computer Science and the principal investigator of the FIREFLY project. “We are honored to be part of DARPA’s FIRE program to improve our capability for CPS modeling, simulation and analysis.”

Xu is the director of CERIAS , Purdue’s Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security, the nation’s first academic center for cybersecurity research and education. He also serves on the steering committee for the Purdue Institute for Physical Artificial Intelligence (IPAI).

FIREFLY will involve a variety of AI methods, such as machine learning, knowledge management and logic reasoning, to enable the modeling and analysis of CPS and any flaws or vulnerabilities found in them. FIREFLY also will leverage and integrate a wide, multidisciplinary range of knowledge and expertise including hardware and software analysis, complex system design, cyber-physical security and automatic control. FIREFLY will take advantage of Purdue’s state-of-the-art CPS experimentation test beds and facilities, such as the Purdue UAS Research and Test Facility.

Xu says that a technically intriguing aspect of the research is that, for a CPS with multiple cyber and physical components, the individual components may not appear faulty or vulnerable. But when the components start to interact, weaknesses or vulnerabilities may occur in unexpected ways: “When it comes to the security of system components and of the overall system, one-plus-one may be less than two. And we are particularly interested in exposing and analyzing such system-of-systems weaknesses.”

Ultimate success for FIREFLY, Xu says, will be a more rigorous and customizable methodology for CPS modeling, simulation and vulnerability analysis. FIREFLY methodology will help generate the cyber-physical systems’ models and simulators in a fast, scalable fashion. Xu adds that FIREFLY will also lead to new concepts and theories for U.S. scientists and engineers to study future systems with ever-increasing complexity, capability and intelligence.

“FIREFLY is both cutting-edge and timely in terms of the intentional integration of analytical models with simulation to drive learning,” says Dan DeLaurentis, vice president for Discovery Park District Institutes and the Bruce Reese Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “It is also a great example of a premier center in our Institutes and Centers at Discovery Park District family, partnering with experts from our top-three aeronautics and astronautics engineering school. I look forward to the exciting results from this powerful team.”

The FIREFLY team consists of faculty members from multiple disciplines. Members from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics are James Goppert, managing director of Purdue’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Research and Test Facility and lecturer, and Inseok Hwang, professor of aeronautics and astronautics engineering. Three assistant professors of computer science participating are Antonio Bianchi, Z. Berkay Celik and Dave (Jing) Tian. Aravind Machiry, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, also is on the project team. Each team member is affiliated with CERIAS.

CERIAS has long been a leader in addressing security challenges in diverse cyber-physical domains, such as autonomous vehicles, critical infrastructures, smart environments and manufacturing. Every year, researchers and practitioners from academia, industry and government gather at the Purdue campus for the CERIAS annual security symposium , which defines and prioritizes current and future opportunities, challenges and threats in cyber and cyber-physical realms.

About Purdue University  

Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives . 

Writer/Media contact: Amy Raley, [email protected]

Source: Dongyan Xu, [email protected]

FIFA Pitch Research Project in Tennessee striving to create the perfect pitches for 2026

FIFA has partnered with University of Tennessee and Michigan State University to produce the best possible pitches for the game-changing tournament

A FIFA delegation visited the innovative FIFA Pitch Research Project in Tennessee for a FIFA Research Field Day event

Field Day event was the first official get-together of 250 pitch managers and industry leaders ahead of FIFA World Cup 26™

A FIFA delegation visited the University of Tennessee (UT) in Knoxville, USA as part of the FIFA Pitch Research Field Day event to inspect the turf research & development (R&D) facility and meet with the teams who are working to create the perfect pitches for the FIFA World Cup 26™. The FIFA Research Field Day was the first official get-together of pitch managers from all 16 host city stadiums and training sites for the FIFA World Cup 26. Representatives from FIFA member associations, confederations, leagues, clubs, and industry suppliers were also present as over 200 turf specialists discussed the challenges and opportunities for the FIFA World Cup 26 R&D project. FIFA Chief Operating Officer World Cup, Heimo Schirgi was accompanied by Manolo Zubiria, FIFA Chief Tournament Officer – USA, Kaj Heyral, FIFA26 Director Infrastructure & Technical Services, Alan Ferguson, FIFA Senior Pitch Management Manager and Ewen Hodge, FIFA26 Senior Pitch Infrastructure Manager. Attendees were given the opportunity to inspect the pitch research facility at UT, hear from experts, and get an update on the status and learnings from the FIFA Research Project.

FIFA Pitch Research Project in Tennessee

12 Apr 2024

When host cities and venues for the FIFA World Cup 26 were announced in June 2022, FIFA’s Pitch Management Team implemented an innovative five-year research and development project to produce the perfect pitches for the tournament. FIFA partnered with UT and Michigan State University (MSU), two globally renowned research leaders who specialise in pitch management and player welfare, to deliver the largest ever sports turf research programme specifically for football/soccer. The two lead professors from the universities working on this R&D programme were involved in the pitch development programme for the last North American FIFA World Cup™ in 1994. “One of the easiest decisions I have made around this tournament so far was the partnering of Tennessee and Michigan State universities,” said Ferguson. “Both already had world-leading reputations, both already led by world-leading turf professors, I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, it was already here.” With three host countries, 16 host cities, and varying sporting venues, time zones and climates, the tournament poses unique challenges for the delivery of uniform and consistent natural grass pitches. It is also an opportunity to develop the optimum playing conditions for the biggest sporting event in history in 2026, as well as future tournaments around the world for years to come.

A general view during the FIFA Research Project Field Day on April 10

A general view during the fifa research project field day on april 10, 2024 in knoxville.

“It’s important that we get these pitches playing and looking as identical as we can. Whether it’s a stadium in Canada, in the Midwest US, or down in the mountains of Mexico, we want there to be consistency with what a player feels under his foot. For us, it’s all about the consistency of the playability for the player,” said Ferguson. Obstacles across the 16 host stadiums, 84 training sites and 178 practice fields include grass maintenance inside fully-roofed stadiums, conversion of artificial pitches, variations in surface standards and differing grass types. The team is also testing turf for ball-to-surface interactions, athlete traction, and ease of maintenance. A state-of-the-art shade house was constructed at UT to replicate conditions inside a domed stadium while MSU has a 23,000 sq ft asphalt pad installed on campus to replicate the concept of laying turf on stadium floors. Dr John Sorochan, Distinguished Professor of Turfgrass Science and Management at UT, explained that the R&D could lead to both environmental and cost benefits. “Sustainability is kind of a unique component to this,” said Sorochan. “The ability to produce a harvestable sod in as much as 16 to 20 weeks is paramount. We can do something really fast, and we can also cut down trucking costs, too. In theory, we can probably do this closer to urban areas and take up a large, vacated parking lot and actually grow the sod close to the stadiums, so you reduce transport costs as well.” Dr John Rogers III, North American Turf Management Specialist from MSU, added: “If you can perfect this – which is what we are doing – you push turf grass science forward. You increase sustainability, you increase every part of the ability of the turf manager to be able to host multi-events in multi-use stadiums. It opens every avenue, and it’s the main reason that, for me, I got involved in this project.”

Research Project Lead for Studies of Postsecondary and Labor Market Outcomes

How to apply.

To apply for this position, please upload [1] a cover letter, [2] your CV, [3] one or more writing samples demonstrating your research skills (e.g., job market paper, dissertation chapter, recent publication that you sole authored or for which you are first author), [4] evidence of significant experience preparing data for analysis using Stata (e.g.,two or more substantial samples of individually written, carefully commented code that demonstrate your skills with cleaning, coding, organizing, merging, and otherwise preparing data for analysis), and [5] contact information for at least three individuals who are willing and able to serve as references for you. The cover letter should address in detail your fit for the position and the ways in which you meet the required and desirable qualifications for the position, listed below, as well as your professional commitment to diversity, inclusion, justice, and equity. If the writing sample is a co-authored paper, include in your cover letter a detailed explanation of your particular role in the work. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Applications received by April 28, 2024, will receive full consideration.

The Research Project Lead takes substantial responsibility for the day-to-day organization and execution of one or more assigned research projects addressing postsecondary students' educational and labor market outcomes, and policies and practices that influence student success and labor market outcomes. The Research Project Lead also collaborates in and provides support to other original research projects and funding proposals led by other team members. The position is part of a research team under the direction of Peter Riley Bahr, Associate Professor in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, who will determine the scope of work. This is a one-year position with the likelihood of renewal depending on funding. The position may be filled as full-time or part-time, and requests for a flexible schedule will be considered.

Responsibilities*

We are seeking skilled individuals who can take initiative and bring creativity in using administrative data to answer research questions and produce actionable findings for colleges, systems, and states.

A person taking on the role of Research Project Lead is responsible for the following:

• Interpret the objectives and research questions of assigned projects
• Make methodologically sound, defensible decisions about data cleaning, defining key terms conceptually and operationalizing them as variables, specifying an appropriate sample and unit of analysis, adjudicating between and selecting analytic approaches based on relevant literature, and sharing results in an accessible format
• Clean, code, organize, merge, and otherwise prepare and manage complex longitudinal data sets for analysis using Stata
• Perform data quality assurance checks and identify potential problems with data and the sources of the problems
• Write carefully commented and well-organized Stata syntax
• Design and refine methodologies to meet project objectives and answer project research questions
• Conduct advanced statistical analyses
• Prepare data tables, figures, and other visualizations to present research findings for internal team review and external dissemination
• Thoroughly document methodological and operational decisions of data preparation and analysis
• Prepare data codebooks
• Conduct literature reviews
• Write manuscripts, reports, briefs, and funding proposals
• Prepare and deliver presentations
• Collaborate in research activities with other team members
• Participate in and contribute to team meetings
• Guide the work of graduate student research team members, assign tasks, set timelines, ascertain the quality and completeness of work products, and ensure that deadlines are met
• Other duties as assigned

Required Qualifications*

• M.A. (Ph.D. preferred) in Higher Education, Public Policy, Sociology, Economics, or a related field
• Extensive experience with advanced quantitative research methods
• Extensive experience preparing complex longitudinal datasets for analysis, including cleaning, coding, organizing, merging, and managing data using Stata
• Extensive experience analyzing data and displaying results in tabular and graphical form using Stata
• Experience writing manuscripts for peer-reviewed scholarly journals
• Experience translating research findings for presentation to scholarly audiences, such as at research conferences
• Extensive, in-depth knowledge of one or more areas of higher education research
• Familiarity with contemporary research and policy discourse on community colleges and other open-access postsecondary institutions
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and meet deadlines
• Demonstrated ability to work well with others, including both receiving direction and providing direction
• Demonstrated ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously while maintaining exceptional attention to detail
• Experience with project planning and leadership
• Strong written and verbal communication skills

Desired Qualifications*

• Ph.D. in Higher Education, Public Policy, Sociology, Economics, or a related field
• Experience working with administrative course-level, student-level, and institution-level education data
• Experience writing research grant proposals
• Experience writing research reports or research briefs for policymakers and/or practitioners
• Experience translating research findings for presentation to policymakers and/or practitioners
• Experience working in state or national higher education organizations

Additional Information

The School of Education is located at 610 E. University, Ann Arbor, Michigan. This is a 100% remote position, but an on-campus office is available if preferred. The position may be filled as full-time or part-time, and requests for a flexible schedule will be considered. 

Statement on Diversity:

We respect and value individuals from all races, ethnic backgrounds, ages, genders, religions, sexual orientations, disabilities, economic or veteran status, and other diverse perspectives and individual differences. Further, we are committed to tolerance, sensitivity, understanding, and mutual respect everywhere within our community and we affirm our promise to make the School of Education a welcoming place for all.  In seeking new staff members, we are committed to hiring those who share in our reverence and expectation for diversity.

Background Screening

The University of Michigan conducts background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer and may use a third party administrator to conduct background checks. Background checks will be performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.