Fitch Laboratory Scientific Research Officer Full-time, Fixed Term (5 YEARS)

Type: Full-time Employment
Job Title: Fitch Laboratory Scientific Research Officer
Full-time, Fixed Term (5 YEARS)
Application Link: Job application form
Description: Further details about the British School at Athens
An educational charity founded in 1886, the British School at Athens (BSA) is the UK’s research hub in the humanities and social sciences in Greece and its wider Balkan, European, Mediterranean and Levantine contexts. It conducts, facilitates and promotes research of international excellence in all periods – from the Palaeolithic to the present – and across all humanities and social science disciplines, as well as offering targeted courses to develop the next generation of researchers and academics in those fields. Greece’s centrality in the history of the western tradition, combined with its key position in post-Ottoman southern Europe and on the front line of the current refugee crisis, make it an unusually rich location for research.
The BSA forms part of the British Academy's network of British International Research Institutes (BIRI) which sustains and supports British research overseas: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/international/research-institutes. In Athens we support research in Greece and neighbouring countries as well as collaborations with local institutions. Our 139-year history brings a strong reputation, an unparalleled regional network, an accumulation of library and material resources, and a body of expertise that benefit both UK-based researchers and those who engage with us as research partners. In the 2024-25 session, for example, over 750 researchers and almost 1,000 students used our facilities and the BSA collaborated with 26 UK institutions and 65 institutions in Greece.
The BSA’s goals are achieved through:
• an academic programme of seminars, lectures, and conferences;
• its internationally renowned library;
• the work of the Fitch Laboratory in science-based archaeological research across the Mediterranean;
• supporting the work of individual researchers from the UK and elsewhere, including applications for study and fieldwork permits; advice on the development of research programmes; accommodation and facilities in Athens and Knossos; and provision of online services;
• making research carried out at the BSA, or with its assistance, known through the publication of its journals and monograph series;
• promoting the use of its archival, laboratory, and museum collections by the scholarly community worldwide;
• providing funding (including studentships and visiting fellowships) for research in Greece, and to enable Greek researchers to visit the UK;
• providing internships and training courses for undergraduates, postgraduates, and schoolteachers.
The BSA’s biannual Newsletters (June and December since 2017), Corporate Plan and Strategic Plan for Research 2021-2025 are posted on www.bsa.ac.uk.

Size and Scope
The BSA is an institute for advanced research and a registered UK charity (no. 208673). It maintains a hostel, world class library, archive, laboratory for archaeological science and offices in Athens; a smaller hostel, library and museum for study purposes in Knossos; and an office in London. It has five full-time academic staff (including the Knossos Curator), two research fellows, three full-time and two part-time administrative/secretarial staff, three full-time library/archival staff; and five full-time and two part-time domestic staff. The academic staff, the research fellows, the IT Officer, and the Archivist are all actively engaged in research, and all staff are actively encouraged to undertake professional development. In addition, the BSA is supported by research-active non-executive staff in the UK – in particular the Chair of Council (Prof. Sir Roderick Beaton), Vice-Chair of Council (Prof. Robin Osborne) and the Deputy Honorary Treasurer (Huw Smith). Its turnover for the financial year 2023-24 was approximately £1.7m. It offers two full-year research fellowships (‘studentships’) and several smaller bursaries for scholars every year. The BSA has over 400 supporters and over 200 members, i.e. scholars who use its facilities for study purposes every year. In addition, around 1,000 researchers, who are not members, are given rights to use the library each year.

Staffing
The BSA has the following research staff, details of whose research interests and publications are available on the BSA’s website (www.bsa.ac.uk):

Full-time academic staff – Director: Professor Rebecca Sweetman. Fitch Laboratory Director: Dr Evangelia Kiriatzi. Assistant Director: Dr Giorgos Mouratidis. Knossos Curator: Dr Kostis Christakis. Fitch Laboratory Scientific Research Officer: Dr Noémi S. Müller (outgoing).

Full-time research fellows –A.G. Leventis Fellow in Hellenic Studies: Dr Rachel Philips. Williams Fellow in Ceramic Petrology: Dr Sergios Menelaou. Current Marie-Curie Czech Fellow: Dr Petra Touslova.
Research-active staff with other primary responsibilities – Ms Amalia Kakissis, Archivist. Dr Eleni Gadolou, Digital Asset Manager. Dr Michael Boyd, Research Officer. Dr Nathan Meyer, IT Officer.

Infrastructure and Facilities
The BSA’s principal research infrastructure consists of its Library, its Museum, the Fitch Laboratory and its facilities at Knossos. Most staff are based in Athens, but a London office is maintained in the British Academy (10 Carlton House Terrace, SW1Y 5AH), staffed by a part-time Administrative Officer and a Head of Development.
The Library in Athens contains over 70,000 volumes, 1,300 periodical titles and 2,000 maps, and has space for 50 readers. Its collections and desk spaces are housed on several different levels, which are served by stairs, reflecting its evolution over 120 years. It is staffed by two full-time librarians (Mrs Evi Charitoudi and Ms Evgenia Villioti) with the help of a Library/Archive intern. Members have 24-hour access. While providing a broad, research-level coverage of Greek archaeology of all periods, it specialises in the fields of Aegean prehistory, ancient art and epigraphy, and Byzantine and modern Greek studies (recently enriched with a major donation); it also houses historical collections (such as George Finlay’s library) and a particularly good collection of Greek and Balkan journals. Its collections are complemented by those of the other foreign schools and institutes in Athens with whom we have reciprocal arrangements giving access to a unique collection of more than 450,000 titles on Hellenic Studies. We have particularly strong links with the neighbouring Blegen and Gennadius libraries of the American School, with whom we share a common online library catalogue (AMBROSIA, American British Online Search in Athens).
The BSA’s Archive collections contain records of the BSA’s field projects going back to 1886; material from the Byzantine Research Fund, c. 1895-1936 (c. 6,500 unique plans, drawings and photographs of Byzantine architecture - some of buildings now destroyed); the George Finlay papers, including journals from the Greek War of Independence; travel notebooks (Gell, Stuart); ethnographic records and a large collection of glass negatives. Our Archivist is responsible for access and conservation of the collection and has secured outside funding in support of projects to conserve, electronically catalogue and digitise images from selected collections. The Archive hosts an annual lecture by a visiting scholar on a relevant topic.
The Marc and Ismene Fitch Laboratory for Archaeological Science, established in 1974, was the first of its kind in Greece. It is a leading centre for the scientific analysis of inorganic archaeological materials—primarily ceramics, but also metals, pigments, vitreous materials etc.—and for bioarcheological studies and geophysical prospection. The Laboratory is equipped with facilities for ceramic petrology, including thin section preparation equipment and research-grade polarising microscopes. It also houses a Wavelength Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (WD-XRF) spectrometer for elemental analysis. Its extensive reference collections include over 25,000 archaeological and more than 3,000 geological samples. It is currently developing facilities and expertise in experimental archaeology and the study of contemporary craftspeople. For geophysical prospection, the Laboratory maintains instruments such as a magnetometer and a resistivity meter. Additional reference collections include mammal and fish bones, as well as plant seeds, with ample space for processing and examining archaeological materials. The Fitch Laboratory supports emerging researchers by offering two to three annual bursaries for graduate students or early-career postdoctoral scholars. It is staffed by a Director, a Scientific Research Officer, an Administrator/Analytical Assistant, a Research Fellow, and a number of visiting researchers and research associates affiliated with externally funded projects. The Laboratory plays an integral role in the BSA’s postgraduate teaching programme, offering specialist short courses in ceramic petrology and the study of ancient glass. Its research is embedded in a wide network of international collaborations and has been supported by a range of public and private funding bodies, including the EU, NSF, CNRS, the Niarchos Foundation, and the Austrian Science Fund. In addition to research and training, the Fitch organizes a regular monthly seminar series in collaboration with the Wiener Laboratory of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, as well as an annual public lecture, workshops, and conferences—often in partnership with other institutions. Further information on the Laboratory’s infrastructure and current activities can be found at: www.bsa.ac.uk
Knossos has been a highly productive centre of research for the British School at Athens since 1900, when Sir Arthur Evans and David Hogarth, then BSA Director, began systematic excavations there. It remains a powerhouse of research, both in the field and in the study of excavated material, under the aegis of the BSA. The Knossos Research Centre (KRC) is focused upon the Stratigraphical Museum (a study centre and finds archive for all British fieldwork at Knossos since the time of Evans, and for several other BSA projects focused elsewhere in Crete) and has a self-catering hostel (the Taverna) and library, open year-round. The Library has a good collection of books and offprints (especially about Crete), and full access to e-resources via AMBROSIA. The Library is also used by local researchers, members of the Archaeological Service, the University of Crete, and other institutions. The Taverna serves principally as a base for those studying in the Stratigraphical Museum or the Herakleion Museum. Knossos is fully integrated into the BSA’s ICT network. There is a resident Curator and a small domestic staff. The KRC hosts an annual postgraduate course on Prehistoric, Greek and Roman pottery, drawing on the collections in the Stratigraphical Museum.
In addition, the BSA’s administrative and academic staff (principally the Administrator) makes use of the BSA’s wide-ranging connections to help individual scholars with permit applications.

Dissemination and Publication of Research
The BSA maintains a policy of publishing the results of its own research, particularly in the fields of archaeology, epigraphy and history. The BSA’s Annual (running since 1895 and published by CUP) is devoted to publishing research in all areas of the BSA’s broad scope, including work carried out by its officers and other members. The BSA also compiles annually in collaboration with the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies Archaeology in Greece, a collection of synthetic articles on recent archaeological fieldwork in Greece which draws on Archaeology in Greece Online, a regularly updated database of fieldwork reports produced in collaboration with the École française d’Athènes. Final reports on major excavation or survey projects usually appear in the BSA’s Supplementary Volumes, while other collections are published in two series: BSA Studies in Greek Antiquity (CUP) and BSA Studies in Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies (Routledge).
Opening Date: Thursday, September 4th, 2025
Deadline: Monday, October 13th, 2025

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