[3] She moved to the University of Cambridge for her doctoral studies, and was awarded her PhD degree from the Department of Biochemistry in 1983.

[6] She joined the University of Oxford in 1987, where she worked at the John Radcliffe Hospital alongside Bryan Sykes and Robert E. M.

[12] Hagelberg's DNA extraction technique was used to identify bones found in Brazil that were believed to belong to Josef Mengele.

[13] With Jeffreys, Hagelberg extracted DNA from a skeleton that had been buried for several years, and compared it with that of Mengele's family members.

[16] She extracted DNA from bone fragments using a method she had developed previously, now modified, as described in her 1991 article coauthored with the molecular biologist John Clegg.

[17] Hagelberg removed the outer surfaces of bone fragments from the skeletons by sanding with a flap-wheel attached to a high-speed drill.

The DNA derived from this process was compared with blood samples from maternal relatives of the Tsar and Tsarina, supplied as a liquid or stains on cotton cloth, which were then extracted.

[19] She used a molecular clock based on cytochrome b on two Asian specimens, one from the Taymyr Peninsula, and the other from the region of the Allaikha River.

There she continued her research on human migrations in the Pacific Islands, by examining mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms in Polynesian and Melanesian bones to resolve conflicting opinions on the migratory patterns.

She found that the Andamanese are genetically more similar to Asian as opposed to African populations, predicting they are descendants of the paleolithic colonies in Southeast Asia.