Postdoctoral Fellow
Email: rrsingl@clemson.edu
Biosketch:
Dr. Robin Singleton is a postdoctoral fellow in the Witt Lab for Computational Population Genomics at Clemons University’s Center for Human Genomics. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Biology and History at Hiram College, which sparked her interest in the human aspects of molecular biology. She then served as a laboratory technician in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Virginia, before beginning her PhD in Molecular Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma, working with Dr. Courtney Hofman as part of the Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research. Dr. Singleton’s doctoral research focused on applying paleogenomic research of non-human remains to anthropological questions, studying human and animal interactions throughout time. She worked primarily with remains from poorly preserved contexts, using novel laboratory and bioinformatic approaches to maximize their analytical potential.
In her current position, Dr. Singleton studies the population histories of various domesticated species across the globe. She uses paleogenomic data to study migrations and management of ancient domesticates, and by extension what this says about the peoples who lived with these animals.
Research interests:
Dr. Singleton’s research focuses on the relationships between humans and animals throughout history, using paleogenomics to understand how these interactions have shaped—and continue to shape—humanity. She works at the intersection between paleoecology and anthropology and covers research areas such as paleoenvironment reconstruction and ancient animal use/management. Much of Dr. Singleton’s work is in regions with very poor biomolecule preservation. She explores how to maximize recoverable data from poorly preserved samples in the laboratory. After data generation, she uses a variety of bioinformatic approaches to utilize limited data in informative ways.
Publications:
Google scholar link: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=R3APo4AAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao