Our Faculty

Background

Michel Shamoon-Pour is a molecular anthropologist specializing in population genetics of Middle Eastern and Pacific populations. 

Shamoon-Pour received his PhD in anthropology from Binghamton University in 2016. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow and visiting assistant professor of molecular and biomedical anthropology at Binghamton University with the First-year Research Immersion (FRI) program. His research interests include the genetics of understudied populations by working with diaspora communities and using biological archives and databases. 

Shamoon-Pour has worked with members of Assyrian communities in the United States to reconstruct genetic matrilineages and patrilineages of pre-genocide Assyrian settlements in the Middle East. Since ongoing conflict hinders fieldwork in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, he is currently surveying existing genetic databases to understand genetic ancestry and the interrelatedness of populations in these regions. He is also interested in studies of ancient human and animal DNA and has collaborated in ancient DNA research projects from sites in the United States, Canada and Poland.

Research Interests

• Paleogenomics and population genetics of the Middle East
• Identity in the genomic era
• Tick-borne diseases
• Research education

Teaching Interests

• molecular anthropology
• anthropology of infectious diseases
• research education at the undergraduate level