We work in close collaboration with a series of UK and international collaborators, who each contribute their specialist expertise:
Dr Mateja Hajdinjak (Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) was trained in ancient DNA analysis by M. Meyer and S. Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA, Germany). For her work on genome-wide data and population history of the last Neanderthals and earliest Homo sapiens in Eurasia she received the Otto Hahn Medal in 2020. Currently, she is leading a new MPI-EVA research group, focussed on genome-wide data of early groups of Homo sapiens and late Neanderthals, creating a perfectly timed synergy with this project.
Prof. Matt Skinner (Professor, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) is a leader in virtual anthropology and current PI on the ERC-consolidator grant NewHuman, where he studies the taxonomic diversity and evolutionary history of fossil humans. Prof. Skinner will advise and conduct micro-CT scanning for the project, including fragments for virtual taphonomy (continuing his collaboration with Dr Smith on the BACBONE project), as well as any newly-identified human remains.
Dr Britt Starkovich (Privatdozent, University of Tübingen, Germany)has a broad experience in using zooarchaeological data to investigate changes in subsistence and diet throughout the Palaeolithic. She has published extensively on Palaeolithic subsistence behaviour at the Greek sites included in this project. She will collaborate with the supervision of PhD-1 (zooarchaeology), which will involve a secondment at her zooarchaeology lab in Tübingen to further develop the integration of ZooMS datasets with traditional zooarchaeological quantification indices and taphonomic frameworks.
Dr Frido Welker (Associate professor, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen) is a leader in the application of mass spectrometry-based proteomics to extract and analyse ancient protein sequences from Palaeolithic human and faunal samples. In 2018 he was awarded the Tübingen Ice Age Research prize, in 2019 he won the Otto Hahn medal, and in 2023 gave the Kroonvoordracht lecture. He is currently PI on an ERC Starting Grant (PROSPER), allowing him to establish a research group focused on Middle and Late Pleistocene human proteomes. He has a longstanding collaboration with the Drs Ruebens and Smith and will host PhD-2 (archaeological science) for a secondment in Copenhagen, and apply shotgun proteomics to any newly-identified human remains.
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