Home / Advisory board
Dr. Matthew Skinner - Founder and lead coordinator
Dr. Matthew Skinner is a palaeoanthropologist in the School of Anthropology and Conservation (University of Kent) whose research focuses on the analysis of teeth and bones to answer questions about the growth and development, diet, taxonomy and evolutionary history of living and extinct primates, including our human ancestors. He is currently principal investigator on the European Research Council Consolidator Grant ‘NewHuman’ which provides funding for human-fossil-record.org.
Prof. Jean-Jacques Hublin - Founder and coordinator
Professor Jean-Jacques Hublin is the Director of the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig. He holds the International Chair in Palaeoanthropology at the College de France, Paris. He has been a pioneer in the field of virtual palaeoanthropology and focuses his research on the origins of Neandertals and Homo sapiens. He is also founding member and President of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution.
Prof. Lee R. Berger - Advisory Board Member
Professor Lee Berger is the Phillip Tobias Chair in Palaeoanthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand and an Explorer at Large for the National Geographic Society. His exploration activities across the world have resulted in the discovery of a number of important fossil hominid finds that have contributed significantly to our understanding of human origins. He has led expeditions that have discovered two new species of ancient human relatives – Homo naledi and Australopithecus sediba. He has been internationally recognized for his substantial contributions to science communication and open access. He presently leads excavations and research activities at several fossil sites in Africa including the Rising Star site and the site of Malapa.
Dr. Mirriam Tawane - Advisory Board Member
Dr. Mirriam Tawane is a palaeoanthropologist and curator of the fossil hominin collections at the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History in Pretoria, South Africa. These collections include the large sample of Paranthropus robustus from Swartkrans and Australopithecus africanus specimens from Sterkfontein (including the famous Sts 5 or 'Mr/Mrs Ples'). She is involved in several research projects on human evolution and provides guidance on the digitisation and data curation of fossils, as well as, curatorial challenges experienced within museums. She participates in a number of science communication activities students and members of the public in South Africa.
Dr. Agness Gidna - Advisory Board Member
Agness Gidna is a researcher and a senior curator in paleontology at the National Museum of Tanzania. Her research focuses on vertebrate taphonomy and Plio-Pleistocene hominin evolution, with the current project excavating FLK N site at Olduvai Gorge Bed I & II and its implication for the meat-eating behavior of early human versus carnivore’s interaction. With a curatorial career for vertebrate fossil collection spanning more than 10 years, she holds several professional memberships and has organized and curated two major exhibitions about human origins at Olduvai Gorge Museum in Ngorongoro and the National Museum of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam. She is passionate about community outreach programs and loves to inspire women and teach students about their heritage. Since 2014, she has been running an education program for Tanzanian school children that focuses on human evolution and the role that Tanzanian fossils have played in reconstructing key aspects in human evolutionary history.
Prof. Tracy Kivell - Advisory Board Member
Professor Tracy Kivell is a palaeoanthropologist in the School of Anthropology and Conservation (University of Kent) who studies the evolution of the postcranial skeleton in living and fossil primates, including our human ancestors. Her research focuses on the functional morphology of the hand in fossil apes and hominins to further our understanding of the origin of human bipedalism, tool use and manipulation throughout our evolutionary history. She is currently co-investigator on the European Research Council Consolidator Grant ‘NewHuman’ which provides funding for human-fossil-record.org.
Prof. Fred Spoor - Advisory Board Member
Professor Fred Spoor is a palaeontologist at the Centre for Human Evolution Research (CHER) of the Natural History Museum in London. He mostly studies human fossils from between 4 and 1 million years ago, in particular those newly found during fieldwork in northern Kenya. Research topics include hominin species diversity in the Pliocene and the origin and early evolution of the genus Homo. From the 1980s onwards he has explored the use of CT scanning to investigate fossils, initially to study the inner ear preserved inside the skull.
Job Kibii - Advisory Board Member
Job Kibii is a Palaeontologist and Head of Palaeontology at the National Museums of Kenya. He studies fossil bones seeking answers to past life in regard to past biocommunity, palaeoecology, palaeodiet, palaeoenvironment, and site formation processes, especially in relation to human evolution. His fieldwork is based in open-air-sites of Tugen hills, Kenya and limestone caves in Kilifi County, Kenya and the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa.