Profile
Anastasia Aliferi
My CV
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Education:
Primary school: Public school in the city of Athens (area of Palaio Psychiko) / Secondary school: Public school in the city of Athens (area of Palaio Psychiko) with the last 2 years at I.M.Panagiotopoulos High School
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Qualifications:
Bachelor of Science in Biology (University of Athens, Greece, 2009-2014)
Master of Research in Forensic Science (King’s College London, UK, 2014-2016)
Doctor of Philosophy in Forensic Genetics (King’s College London, UK, 2016-2020)
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Work History:
I volunteered for a month for ARCHELON the sea turtle protection society of Greece in 2011, I did an internship at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens in Greece for 3 months and I worked as a Forensic Analyst for King’s College London and Eurofins Scientific between the end of my MRes degree and the start of my PhD in 2016.
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Current Job:
I’m still a student working towards my PhD in Forensic Genetics. At the same time I’m also working on police cases that need us to use some of our newest tools, like the ones that can tell us how someone looks like or where they are from! I also work as a laboratory demonstrator for the BSc and MSc Forensic Science degrees and as a mentor for the Forensic Science online course of King’s College London on Future Learn (‘The Science Behind Forensic Science’)
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About Me:
I’m a Gryffindor that speaks incredibly fast and without much filter – which often gets me in trouble. I love doodling, will eat almost anything that has chocolate as an ingredient and my dog has the highest place in my list of favourite people.
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I’m originally from Athens in Greece and I lived there until I finished my Bachelor’s degree. I moved to London 5 years ago and instantly fell in love with this city – the fact that the UK is the home of Harry Potter may or may not have something to do with that. I’m a huge Harry Potter fan and my current favourite Netflix shows are The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Stranger Things. I’m the proud mum of the sassiest dog in the whole world, her name is Jess and she’s a rescue German Shepherd mix. I love drawing and I always try to make time for it.
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Think about the police investigating a crime scene and all they can find is a tiny drop of blood. There are no cameras, no witnesses, no suspects! Now imagine how useful it would be for us if from this blood drop we could tell how the person who left it behind looks, where they come from and how old they are! That narrows things down, right?
I work with multiple projects that look into finding out things like someone’s eye and hair colour, whether they have straight or curly hair and where in the world they originally come from, by just looking at a little bit of their blood. My main focus however, is using blood to guess someone’s age. Unlike our eye colour, our age changes every single day, making our job at calculating it very very difficult! I have spent over 4 years looking at this puzzle and digging into very large piles of data from thousands of different people. If you are interested to know more, I have some pretty exciting stuff to share (hint: we might have figured it out!!).
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My Typical Day:
My morning starts with emails and coffee! The rest of my day might be spent entirely in the lab (especially when there is an urgent case!) or in front of my computer, studying and writing. I also have some special days where I get to work with university or school students and days when I’m travelling to present my work and see what other researchers are up to.
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I’m not a morning person, but by 9.30 I’m at my desk at the university, scrolling through my emails and sipping on a large cup of coffee. The rest of my day really depends on the week. If I am working on a case or running experiments, then I’m probably spending all of my time in the lab, but there are also days spent entirely in front of my computer, analyzing data, studying new research or writing. Especially now that I’m reaching the end of my degree, a lot of my time is spent studying and working on my dissertation which is going to be a whole book describing my research.
Some not-so-typical days include helping students out with their laboratory practicals, visiting schools and talking to students about my work, and travelling to different places to present my work at conferences. I enjoy these different days and it’s always fun meeting new people and visiting new places! So far I have been to many countries like South Korea, Switzerland and Spain.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I want to make a life-size board game that will be something between ‘Guess Who?’ and ‘Cluedo’ and the goal will be to use the information we can get from a single blood drop found at a crime scene to identify the person who committed the crime!
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My latest work:
Think about the police investigating a crime scene and all they can find is a tiny drop of blood. There are no cameras, no witnesses, no suspects! Now imagine how useful it would be for us if from this blood drop we could tell how the person who left it behind looks, where they come from and how old they are! That narrows things down, right?
I work with multiple projects that look into finding out things like someone’s eye and hair colour, whether they have straight or curly hair and where in the world they originally come from, by just looking at a little bit of their blood. My main focus however, is using blood to guess someone’s age. Unlike our eye colour, our age changes every single day, making our job at calculating it very very difficult! I have spent over 4 years looking at this puzzle and digging into very large piles of data from thousands of different people.