Prof. Dr. Katerina Harvati-Papatheodorou
Function: Director Paleoanthropology
Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoecology, Paläoanthropologie
Rümelinstr. 23
D-72070 Tübingen
Room 517, Hauptgebäude, 2. OG
+49-(0)7071-29-76516
+49-(0)7071-29-5717
katerina.harvati@ifu.uni-tuebingen.de
Consulting hours:
Wed. 14-17
About
Prof. Harvati is Professor for Paleoanthropology at the Institute for Archaeological Sciences and director of the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment (SHEP) at the University of Tübingen. She is President of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (ESHE), and editor-in-chief of the diamond open access journal PaleoAnthropology. Before joining the University of Tübingen in 2009, she was Assistant Professor in New York University (2001-04) and Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany (2004-09).
Her research focuses on Neanderthal paleobiology, modern human origins and dispersals, and the application of virtual anthropology methods to paleoanthropology. Her broader research interests include primate evolution and life history; the relationship between the phenotype, genotype, behavior and the environment; settlement of the Americas; and the paleoanthropology of South-East Europe. She conducts long term fieldwork in Greece.
Prof. Harvati is the recipient of three ERC grants: ERC Starting Grant PaGE (2012-16); ERC Consolidator Grant CROSSROADS (2017-22); and ERC Advanced Grant FIRSTSTEPS (2022-28).
She was awarded with the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz prize, the highest academic distinction in Germany, in 2021; and the Research Award of the state of Baden-Württemberg in 2014, as well as the Shanghai Archaeology Forum Research Award in 2023. She was elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2022.
Since 2014, Prof. Harvati directs the DFG Centre for Advanced Studies ‘Words, Bones, Genes, Tools: Tracking linguistic, cultural and biological trajectories of the human past’ together with Prof. Jäger (Linguistics). Since 2020, she is Professor II at the Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), University of Bergen, Norway.
Links
Academic and professional trajectory
2023
Director
Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment
2023
Shanghai Archeology Forum (SAF) Reserach Award
2022
Elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
2021
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
2020 - 2022
Director
Institute for Archaeological Sciences
2020
Elected President, European Society for the Study of Human Evolution
2014
Co-director, DFG Center for Advanced Studies ‘Words, Bones, Genes, Tools’
2014
Landesforschungspreis Baden-Württemberg
2009
W3 Professor of Paleoanthropology
Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
2009
Habilitation
Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
2004
Senior Researcher
Dept. of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
2001
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Anthropology, New York University
2001
Ph.D. in Anthropology
City University of New York Graduate Center Dept. of Anthropology & New York Consortium on Evolutionary Primatology
Publications
Selected recent publications
Harvati K., Stringer C., Folorunso A. In press. Comparative 3D shape analysis of the Iwo Eleru mandible, Nigeria. PaleoAnthropology
Roditi E., Bocherens H., Konidaris G.E., Athanassiou A., Tourloukis V., Karkanas P., Panagopoulou E., Harvati K. 2024. Life-history of Palaeoloxodon antiquus reveals Middle Pleistocene glacial refugium in the Megalopolis basin, Greece. Scientific Reports 14, 1390. Doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-51592-9
Konidaris G.E., Tourloukis V., Boni G., Athanassiou A., Giusti D., Thompson N., Syrides G., Panagopoulou E., Karkanas P., Harvati K. 2023. Maratho usa 2: A New Middle Pleistocene Locality in the Megalopolis Basin (Greece) With Evidence of Hominin Exploitation of Megafauna (Hippopotamus). PaleoAnthropology 2023:1, 34-55 DOI:https://doi.org/10.48738/2023.iss1.810
Röding C., Stringer C., Lacruz R.S., Harvati K. 2023. Mugharet el’Aliya: affinities of an enigmatic North African Aterian maxillary fragment. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 180, 352-369 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24642
Harvati K., Reyes Centeno H. 2022. Evolution of Homo in the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Journal of Human Evolution 173, 103279. Open Access: https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0047248422001397
Harvati K., Ackermann R.R. 2022. Merging morphological and genetic evidence to assess hybridization in Western Eurasian Late Pleistocene hominins. Nature Ecology & Evolution 6, 1573-1585
Konidaris G., Athanassiou A., Panagopoulou E., Harvati K. 2022. First record of Macaca (Cercopithecidae, Primates) in the Middle Pleistocene of Greece. Journal of Human Evolution 162, 103104 Open access: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248421001561
Harvati K., Röding C., Bosman A., Karakostis F.A., Grün R., Stringer C., Karkanas P., Thompson N.C., Koutoulidis V., Moulopoulos L.A., Gorgoulis V.G., Kouloukoussa M. 2019. Apidima Cave fossils provide earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in Eurasia. Nature 571, 500-504
Tourloukis V., Harvati K. 2018. The Palaeolithic record of Greece: a synthesis of the evidence and a research agenda for the future. Quaternary International, SI Filling the Geographic Gaps in the Human Evolutionary Story, 466, 48-65
Beier J., Anthes N., Wahl J., Harvati K. 2018. Similar cranial trauma prevalence among Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic humans. Nature 563, 686-690
Karakostis F.A., Hotz G., Tourloukis V., Harvati K. 2018. Evidence for precision grasping in Neandertal daily activities. Science Advances 4, eaat2369
Hublin J.J., Ben-Ncer A., Bailey S., Freideline S., Neubauer S., Skinner M.M., Bergmann I., Le Cabec A., Benazzi S., Harvati K., Gunz P. 2017. New fossils from Jebel Irhoud (Morocco) and the Pan-African origin of Homo sapiens. Nature 546, 289-292
Harvati K, Roksandic, M. (Eds.) 2016. Paleoanthropology of the Balkans and Anatolia: Human Evolution and its Context. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series, Springer: Dordrecht.
Reyes-Centeno H., Ghirotto S., Détroit F., Grimaud-Hervé D., Barbujani G., Harvati K. 2014. Genomic and Cranial Phenotype Data Support Multiple Modern Human Dispersals from Africa and a Southern Route into Asia. PNAS USA 111, 7248-7253