Meet the team working on the RACOM project

Professor Kevin Butcher - Principal Investigator

Kevin Butcher is a specialist in the ancient monetary economy and has been working on the interpretation of coin finds and analytical results of ancient silver coinage for thirty years, employing the data in a technical, social, and economic framework, and has published extensively on the subject. A full profile is available here.

Dr Matthew Ponting

Collaborator Matthew Ponting is Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool and is Manager of the Elizabeth Slater Archaeometry Laboratories there; he has some three decades of experience in the sampling and scientific analysis of ancient silver coinage, metallographic analysis and the interpretation of the data. A full profile is available hereLink opens in a new window.

Dr Adrian Hillier

Collaborator Adrian Hiller is Researcher at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK, and leads the development of the technique using μXES for elemental analysis. ISIS Neutron and Muon Source is a world-leading centre for research at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford. Their suite of neutron and muon instruments give unique insights into the properties of materials on the atomic scale.​ Further information about the laboratory is available hereLink opens in a new window.

Clare Roberts

Clare is the Project Administrator for RACOM and is responsible for project communications and impact/public engagement strategy, arranging travel and events, project financial management, ERC reporting requirements and maintaining the project website and database.

You can contact Clare on .

Dr Godwin Yeboah

Dr. Godwin Yeboah is a Senior Research Software Engineer specializing in digital humanities, geospatial technologies, and software engineering. He has pioneered innovative digital humanities projects and led interdisciplinary research across the UK, Asia, and Africa, collaborating with various international scholars. Dr. Yeboah is dedicated to advancing digital research. He is a trustee of the Society of Research Software Engineering and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. A full profile is available here.

Post-doctoral researchers

Dr Tom Elliot, University of Liverpool

Tom Elliot was a RACOM Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Liverpool in 2020-2022, with specialisms in Laser Ablation Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) and Machine Learning. Prior to investigating coins, his research focussed on identifying the geological source of Mesolithic flint artefacts from the Lower Wye Valley on the England-Wales border to evidence the mobility and exchange practices of the communities who inhabited the region.

Tom worked on comparative analyses of coin samples, utilising inductively coupled-plasma mass spectrometry and laser sampling (LA-ICP-MS) in particular. The position involved setting up suitable analytical protocols and running samples using solution-based methods.

Dr Eleni Papaefthymiou, University of Warwick

Dr Eleni Papaefthymiou studied Ancient Greek History and Archaeology, obtaining a Ph.D. at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne under the direction of Professor Georges Le Rider. She worked in Paris, Athens and London in the private and public sector manipulating large numismatic collections, coin hoards and excavation finds. Her research interests, and publications, focus particularly on Hellenistic Greek - civic and federal - and Roman Provincial coinages and economy of mainland Greece, the Balkans and Asia Minor. Since 2010 she is the editor of Nomismatika Khronika, the Greek numismatic journal of the Hellenic Numismatic Society.

Dr Papaefthymiou, as Research Fellow in Hellenistic and Roman Republican Numismatics, worked under the supervision of Professor Kevin Butcher on coin circulation of Roman Republican and Greek coinages (civic and federal), 2022-2024.

Dr Jonathan Wood, University of Liverpool

Dr Jonathan Wood was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Liverpool, 2022-2023. He specialises in analysing archaeometric data and has worked on Parthian and Sasanian glazed pottery, New Kingdom cobalt-blue glass, Bronze and Iron Age silver from around the Mediterranean, and Chinese ritual bronzes. He assisted Dr Matthew Ponting with the interpretation of lead isotope analyses of Roman coins.

Dr Juliet Spedding, University of Liverpool

Juliet Spedding received her BA, MA, and PhD from the University of Liverpool. Her background is in Ancient Egypt and Nubia (ancient Sudan) with her research focusing on the chemical analysis of ancient faience and glass from Nubia (c.2350BCE-650CE). Prior to joining the RACOM team in 2025, she was a postdoctoral research associate on the Biodiversity in Egyptian Archaeology during Societal Transitions (BEAST) project at the University of Liverpoolworking with colleagues at Liverpool, York University, and the American University in Cairo.

As part of RACOM, Juliet worked with Dr Matthew Ponting in 2025 on interpreting the chemical and isotopic analytical results of the Roman coins.