Thomas Rose

Research

Professor Thomas Rose studies the materials and technologies that shaped early human societies, with a focus on ancient metallurgy and pyrotechnology. His research examines how metals—particularly copper and its alloys—were produced, transformed, and circulated in the past, and what those processes reveal about technological innovation, resource use, and social organization. 

Rose’s work integrates geochemistry, mineralogy, experimental archaeology, and materials science, using techniques such as isotope analysis to trace the sources of ores and to understand how smelting, refining, and corrosion alter materials at the atomic level.  

His research program centers on three main areas: reconstructing ancient metallurgical technologies through geochemical and experimental approaches; developing and maintaining digital research infrastructure, software, and analytical tools for archaeometric data; and advancing best practices for data stewardship, interoperability, and open science in materials-based studies of the human past. 

Biography

Professor Rose earned his Ph.D. in archaeology through a European joint doctoral program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Sapienza – Università di Roma in 2023. His doctoral research focused on the emergence of copper pyrotechnology in Western Asia. He received his M.Sc. in geosciences, specializing in mineralogy, from Goethe University Frankfurt, where his research examined iron and oxygen isotope fractionation during smelting and corrosion processes. He earned earlier degrees in geosciences and archaeology from Goethe University Frankfurt and the University of Tübingen. 

Before joining the MIT DMSE faculty in January 2026, Rose held research and coordination roles in Germany—at the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum and Goethe University Frankfurt, where he worked on international projects at the intersection of geochemistry, archaeology, and research data management.