Ihini Aambreen (she/her)

Ihini Aambreen (she/her) is a BBSRC funded Wessex One Health PhD candidate based at Exeter's Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health (CCEH). Her project 'Investigating Co-infections and Co-morbidities in the Ancient World: Multi-disciplinary Approaches to Past Disease Interactions' aims to develop appropriate methodologies for investigating co-infections in the past and to generate knowledge and understanding of ancient patterns of co-infection using a combination of ancient metagenomics, bioarchaeology and ancient historic texts. The project is supervised by Prof. Rebecca Flemming (Classics and Ancient History, and CCEH), Dr Catriona Mckenzie (Department of Archaeology), Prof William Horsnell (Centre for Medical Mycology) and Dr Javier Salguero (UK Health Security Agency).

Outside of research, Ihini is interested in young engagement and educational outreach. Ihini sits on the National Trust Council, as an appointee of the Council for British Archaeology. Previously, she was part of the CBA's Youth Advisory Board (2023-2025) - her work included co-creating an Introduction to Archaeology Day at GNM Newcastle in 2025, writing for the British Archeology Magazine, presenting at and chairing the CIfA Early Careers Conference, creating an open access resource for the Young Archaeologists Club (YAC) on pets in archaeology and their ties with wellbeing, co-creating the new YAC website, and curating a workshop with Young Producers from Shout Out Loud for Gateways into Heritage 2025 exploring what heritage means to different people. 

Prior to this, Ihini completed an MPhil in Archaeological Science at the University of Cambridge (2023-2025) and a First Class BSc (Hons) in Biological Anthropology with a Year in Professional Practice at the University of Kent (2019-2023). She has previously worked as a research assistant at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and in commercial archaeology archives at the Canterbury Archaeological Trust.