Andrew Clack
McMaster Ancient DNA Centre
Department of Anthropology
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1
Canada

Andrew (Andy) Clack is a 3rd yr Ph.D. candidate at McMaster's Ancient DNA Centre. He was previously employed at the Laboratories of Analytical Biology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History where he worked on several projects including a major molecular Barcoding of Life initiative. Prior to this he was employed as a research associate at the University of Cincinnati's Dept. of Biology (the Petren Lab), where he performed multilocus genotyping on museum specimens to directly assess the genetic history and extinction risk of species/populations of Darwin's finches.

He was formally introduced to the world of aDNA at the Henry Welcome
Ancient Biomolecules Centre at Oxford University. Under the supervision of Dr. Michael Bunce and Prof. Alan Cooper he produced the first ratite phylogenies to incorporated ancient nuclear DNA extracted from New Zealand's extinct moa. He was awarded an MSc in 2005.
Andrew also holds a MESc in Conservation Ecology from Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Science. As part of this program he interned with USGS's Biological Resources Division in Hawaii, assisting with an investigation into the dynamic effects of avian malaria on native bird populations.

For the past three years Andy has been using ancient DNA to characterize the extinct sloths of the Greater Antilles. This in turn has lead to several collaborations involving extinct continental sloth species.