Andrew Koh, PhD, BS

Andrew Koh is a humanistic scientist with a strong interest in ancient pharmacology & medicine, ancient innovation & technology, and modern applications of antiquity. His research focuses on cross-cultural interactions, social complexity, and ecologies of the past through the lens of ancient technology, pharmacopeia, and craft. After completing his dissertation as an exchange scholar at Stanford University, he earned his doctorate in archaeology with a combined chemistry and ancient history focus at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan and its Kelsey Museum before heading to UCLA to run its introductory ancient Greek program and teach archaeology. This was followed by a Florence Levy Kay fellowship in chemistry and Mediterranean studies at Brandeis University, where he founded its Digital Scholarship Lab, and his appointment as a senior research fellow at the MIT Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology. In addition to his doctorate, Dr. Koh holds a BS in biophysics and classics (pre-medicine) and completed master’s programs in biblical studies and Egyptology.

Dr. Koh has developed a transdisciplinary method - fusing archaeology, ancient texts, ethnobotany, and biomolecular analysis - to identify previously invisible ancient organic goods (e.g. sophisticated wines, complex aromatics, psychotropic drugs, medical salves, vibrant dyes) and the effects their production and use had on ancient environments and socio-cultural practices. This approach ultimately provides opportunities to recover undetected ancient innovation and better understand social complexity and cultural identity through the adoption of technology and ideas. It holds even greater meaning today as we struggle to understand the environmental and cultural ramifications of intensively leveraging vulnerable natural resources, such as what was done in the past with royal purple dye, silphium juice, and wormwood oil.

Dr. Koh is currently Museum Scientist for the Yale Peabody Museum and heads the Yale Ancient Pharmacology Program (https://ancientpharmacology.com). He is also PI of the Southern Phokis Regional Project (https://kastrouli.com) in Greece, which includes field projects at the Mycenaean citadels of Antikyra-Steno (Homeric Kyparissos) and Desfina-Kastrouli (Homeric Anemoreia). He founded the ARCHEM Project (https://archemproject.org) in 2003 to make organic residue studies more accessible, a goal best exemplified by the interdisciplinary OpenARCHEM database (https://openarchem.com). He previously served as Associate Director of the Tel Kabri Archaeological Project in the Upper Galilee and conducted field research in Upper Egypt at the sites of Abydos and Luxor. He is finishing a monograph for Cambridge University Press called Luxury Trade & Social Complexity in the Ancient Mediterranean World and three book projects for Penn Museum Press related to the museum's famed Minoan collection excavated by Harriet Boyd Hawes and New Kingdom Tomb 254 from Sedment, Egypt excavated by Flinders Petrie.