About the Centre

About the Centre and what we do

Research which takes a collaborative, fieldwork-based approach to evolutionary anthropology.

The Centre was founded in 2004 and is the only formally recognised research centre in the Faculty of Science. Focusing on biological anthropology in a science rather than a social science milieu engenders a strong interdisciplinary and hypothesis-testing approach to our research, which has an emphasis on fieldwork.

Recent highlights

Researchers from our centre have:

• pioneered use of AI to monitor animal populations and identify fossil tracks
• supported reconciliation through recovery of war missing
• uncovered indication of complex cooking by Neanderthals
• led worldwide orangutan conservation efforts
• documented discovery of Australopithecus sediba
• helped to unravel the mystery of where dogs underwent domestication

Notable collaborations

Some of our current collaborations include:

• Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
• Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program
• Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (DRC)
• Historic England
• National Crime Agency
• University of Cambridge
• Natural History Museum
• Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, University of Sao Paulo
• University of Witwatersrand
• University of Cape Town
• Arizona State University
• University of Kyoto
• University of Calgary
• Stony Brook University
• Stanford University

For further information about who we work with, see the area of expertise you are interested in.