Dr Noemi Procopio

Noemi is the Co-Director of the Research Centre for Field Archaeology and Forensic Taphonomy.

In 2019, Dr Noemi Procopio was awarded with the prestigious UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship with the project titled "Forens-OMICS": a cross disciplinary implementation of omics sciences to in vivo and post-mortem ageing investigations for forensic applications". The aim of her project is to investigate how biomolecules, in particular proteins, metabolites and DNA, can survive and decay after death, to identify new biomarkers in human bones capable of revealing information on the chronological age and the post-mortem interval (PMI) of the individuals. Her role here is primarily focused on research.

She is currently supervising four PhD students in the fields of forensic proteomics and genomics, metabarcoding, cementochronology and next-generation sequencing technologies for forensic applications.

Dr Noemi Procopio graduated with First-Class Honours in Biotechnology at the University of Turin with a thesis titled: “Forensic Genetics: Analysis of Samples ‘Low Template DNA’”. Following her BSc, she obtained a 2-year MSc degree (First-Class Honours) in Molecular Biotechnology at the same University, with a thesis titled: “Body Fluids Mixture Analysis From Immunochromatographic Cards” under the supervision of Prof. Sarah Gino. She then joined the University of Manchester to start her PhD in Forensic Proteomics under the supervision of Dr. Michael Buckley. Her thesis is titled: “Proteome Taphonomy, Biomolecular Investigations into the Process of Decay for Forensic and Archaeological Applications”.

After completing her PhD, she joined Northumbria University as a lecturer in Forensic Science and she is now Senior Research Fellow in our Forensic Taphonomy. Recently she has been appointed as Visiting Professor at the University of Eastern Piedmont in Novara (Italy) and as Visiting Scholar at Texas State University - Dept. of Anthropology. She has been an invited speaker to many conferences and workshops in UK, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and Mexico. She has delivered oral presentations at national and international forensic meetings including the American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS), the European Academy of Forensic Science, the Italian Academy of Forensic Science, and she has been session moderator at the AAFS. Dr Procopio is also a peer-reviewer for many international journals including Communications Biology, the Journal of Proteome Research and the Journal of Forensic Sciences and for several research councils both in the UK and abroad. She is also an Editorial Board Member of Springer Nature – Springer Series “Soil Forensics".

Noemi has contributed to documentaries for Sky Crime ("What The Killer Did Next"), has been interviewed from Scripps National Media to provide a video-story that was syndicated to over 50 U.S.A. TV stations and other media entities. She has provided an expert opinion for BBC News on the case of the Essex Lorry Deaths, has been interviewed by BBC Radio - Newcastle, has participated to the "Science for the People” podcast (U.S.A. based) and to outreach events including Soapbox of Science and the Great Exhibition Road Festival in London. Her work has attracted the attention of numerous journalists which featured her work on many websites, journals and press releases including the Washington Post, The Independent, AZoLifeSciences, Ars Technica, ACS Central Science, Science News and Science News Explores.