Turi King

Turi King
King in 2015
Born	Turi Emma King[4] (1969-12-31) 31 December 1969 (age 54)[4] Nottingham, England
Nationality	Canadian[citation needed] British
Alma mater	Jesus College, Cambridge (BA) University of Leicester (MSc, PhD)
Known for	Richard III forensic DNA investigation[5] BBC Two DNA Family Secrets Ancient DNA research Non-paternity event research mitochondrial DNA research
Awards	Haldane Lecture (2018)[1]
Scientific career
Fields	Genetics Archaeology History Forensics Genetic genealogy Surnames[2]
Institutions	University of Leicester
Thesis	The relationship between British surnames and Y-chromosomal haplotypes (2008)
Academic advisors	Alec Jeffreys[3]
Website	www.turiking.co.uk

Turi Emma King (born 31 December 1969)^[4] is a Canadian-British professor of Public Engagement and Genetics at the University of Leicester. In 2012, King led the DNA verification during the exhumation and reburial of Richard III of England.^[5] She is also known for featuring with Stacey Dooley on the BBC Two genealogy series, DNA Family Secrets.^[6][7] She is currently the Director of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath.^[8]

King was born in Nottingham, England, as the eldest of three children born to Alan King, an engineer, and Daphne King, a housewife.^[9] King is named after Norwegian aviator Turi Widerøe, the first woman to fly for a Western airline.^[10]

She moved to Canada at an early age and was brought up in Vancouver, British Columbia. She studied at the University of British Columbia and worked on archaeological sites in Canada, Greece, and England,^[11] before moving to Jesus College, Cambridge^[9] to read Archaeology and Anthropology.^[12] There she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree.^[13] She won a scholarship to study for a Master of Science degree in Molecular Genetics at the University of Leicester, gaining a First with Distinction.^[14]

In 2000, she started her doctoral research as a Wellcome Trust Prize Student at the University of Leicester, specialising in genetic genealogy and "in tracing migration patterns by using genetics."^[9] Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, the inventor of DNA fingerprinting, was on her PhD supervisory panel.^[15]

Her thesis on the relationship between British surnames and Y-chromosomal haplotypes^[16][17] was published in 2007, and eventually formed the basis of the book Surnames, DNA and Family History, which she co-authored with David Hey and George Redmonds.^[18][2][19]

King's research initially centered around genetics, genetic genealogy, forensics, and surnames, and using aspects of human DNA such as the Y chromosome to track past human migrations.^[11][20][21] Her work has included tracing "the signal of the Viking migration to the north of England", resulting in her appearance in Michael Wood's The Great British Story – A People's History on BBC Two,^[17] and in Michael Wood's Story of England.^[22]

In 2012, she led the genetic analysis and verification during the exhumation and reburial of Richard III of England.^[23] She was able to use the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from direct living descendants of Richard III's sister, Anne of York, one of whom (Michael Ibsen) was traced by British historian John Ashdown-Hill, with a second relative (Wendy Duldig) traced by the University of Leicester team.^{[24][25][23][26]}

In March 2021, she presented the BBC Radio 4 documentary "Genetics and the longer arm of the law".^[27]

As Professor of Public Engagement, King regularly undertakes public speaking at universities,^[28] schools and public events such as the Cheltenham Science Festival,^[29] the Moscow Science Festival,^[30] a Congressional Breakfast on Capitol Hill,^[31] the Galway Science and Technology Festival,^[32] and the Queen's Lecture in Berlin.^[33] She guest-presented the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures in Japan in 2019 stepping in for Alice Roberts.^[34][35]

She advises on numerous television programmes and provides genetic expertise to authors such as Patricia Cornwell,^[36][37] Philippe Sands,^[38] Edward Glover, and David McKie.^[39]

King has also appeared in a number of television and radio documentaries as an expert in genetic genealogy, forensics, and/or ancient DNA.^{[40][41][42][43]}

The following is a list of projects King is either heading or has been involved with:

• The King's DNA: whole genome sequencing of Richard III^[11]
• What's in a Name? Applying Patrilineal Surnames to Forensics, Population History, and Genetic Epidemiology^[11][44]
• HALOGEN (History, Archaeology, Linguistics, Onomastics, and GENetics)^[11][45]
• The Irish Surnames Project^[11]
• The Mary Jane Kelly Project, dedicated to confirming the identity of Jack the Ripper's final confirmed victim.^[11][46]

King has appeared in numerous television and radio documentaries, programmes and videos as well as advising on television and radio productions such as BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?^[47]

• Presented the series Ancient Murders Unearthed for Sky History.^[48]
• Presented the BBC Radio 4 documentary: Genetics and the longer arm of the law^[27]
• Guest on The Life Scientific as DNA Detective Turi King
• Britain's Lost Battlefields with Rob Bell^[49]
• Richard III: The King in the Car Park^[50]
• Britain's Secret Treasures^[51]
• Richard III: Solving a 500 Year Old Cold Case (TEDx Leicester)^[52]
• Richard III – The DNA Analysis & Conclusion (University of Leicester)^[53]
• Richard III: The Resolution of A 500-Year-Old Cold Case (Irving K. Barber Learning Centre Lecture, UBC)^[54]

DNA Family Secrets is a television series which began airing on BBC Two in March 2021,^[6] presented by Stacey Dooley and King, it uses current DNA technology to solve family mysteries around ancestry, missing relatives and genetic disease. Series three aired in 2023.^[55]

In 2016, King was appointed an honorary fellow of the British Science Association in recognition of her contribution to public engagement in science.^[56] She gave the J. B. S. Haldane prize lecture of The Genetics Society in 2018, at the Royal Institution, London.^[1] She was the president of the Adelphi Genetics Forum for two years, as announced in the Galton Review.^[57]

King is married.^[58]

• Timeline of women in science

• Turi King -official website

• Scully, Marc; Brown, Steven D.; King, Turi (2015). "Becoming a Viking: DNA testing, genetic ancestry and placeholder identity". Ethnic and Racial Studies (Submitted manuscript). 39 (2): 162–180. doi:10.1080/01419870.2016.1105991. hdl:2381/33336. S2CID 55505069.
• King, Turi E.; Fortes, Gloria Gonzalez; Balaresque, Patricia; Thomas, Mark G.; Balding, David; Delser, Pierpaolo Maisano; Neumann, Rita; Parson, Walther; Knapp, Michael; Walsh, Susan; Tonasso, Laure; Holt, John; Kayser, Manfred; Appleby, Jo; Forster, Peter; Ekserdjian, David; Hofreiter, Michael; Schürer, Kevin (2014). "Identification of the remains of King Richard III". Nature Communications. 5: 5631. Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.5631K. doi:10.1038/ncomms6631. PMC 4268703. PMID 25463651.
• Appleby, Jo; Rutty, Guy N.; Hainsworth, Sarah V.; Woosnam-Savage, Robert C.; Morgan, Bruno; Brough, Alison; Earp, Richard W.; Robinson, Claire; King, Turi E.; Morris, Mathew; Buckley, Richard (2015). "Perimortem trauma in King Richard III: A skeletal analysis". The Lancet. 385 (9964): 253–259. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60804-7. hdl:2381/33280. PMID 25238931. S2CID 13248948.
• Bowden, G. R.; Balaresque, P.; King, T. E.; Hansen, Z.; Lee, A. C.; Pergl-Wilson, G.; Hurley, E.; Roberts, S. J.; Waite, P.; Jesch, J.; Jones, A. L.; Thomas, M. G.; Harding, S. E.; Jobling, M. A. (2008). "Excavating Past Population Structures by Surname-Based Sampling: The Genetic Legacy of the Vikings in Northwest England". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 25 (2): 301–309. doi:10.1093/molbev/msm255. PMC 2628767. PMID 18032405.
• Balaresque, Patricia; Bowden, Georgina R.; Adams, Susan M.; Leung, Ho-Yee; King, Turi E.; Rosser, Zoë H.; Goodwin, Jane; Moisan, Jean-Paul; Richard, Christelle; Millward, Ann; Demaine, Andrew G.; Barbujani, Guido; Previderè, Carlo; Wilson, Ian J.; Tyler-Smith, Chris; Jobling, Mark A. (2010). "A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for European Paternal Lineages". PLOS Biology. 8 (1): e1000285. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000285. PMC 2799514. PMID 20087410.
• Hallast, P.; Batini, C.; Zadik, D.; Maisano Delser, P.; Wetton, J. H.; Arroyo-Pardo, E.; Cavalleri, G. L.; De Knijff, P.; Destro Bisol, G.; Dupuy, B. M.; Eriksen, H. A.; Jorde, L. B.; King, T. E.; Larmuseau, M. H.; Lopez De Munain, A.; Lopez-Parra, A. M.; Loutradis, A.; Milasin, J.; Novelletto, A.; Pamjav, H.; Sajantila, A.; Schempp, W.; Sears, M.; Tolun, A.; Tyler-Smith, C.; Van Geystelen, A.; Watkins, S.; Winney, B.; Jobling, M. A. (2014). "The Y-Chromosome Tree Bursts into Leaf: 13,000 High-Confidence SNPs Covering the Majority of Known Clades". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 32 (3): 661–673. doi:10.1093/molbev/msu327. PMC 4327154. PMID 25468874.
• King, Turi (2014). "What can Genetics Tell us about Vikings in the Wirral and West Lancashire?". In Harding, Stephen E.; Griffiths, David; Royles, Elizabeth (eds.). In Search of Vikings: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Scandinavian Heritage of North-West England. CRC Press. pp. 165–78. ISBN 9781482207590.