Tom Higham, Professur für Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie

"People are genuinely interested in the past and answers to the question 'where did we come from?'. My research seeks to better explain this and to build a picture of the late period of human evolution, in particular exploring aspects of the prehistory of Homo sapiens over the last 50,000 years and how we became human." (Tom Higham)

Tom Higham's inaugural lecture "Neanderthals, Denisovans and Homo sapiens: How new science is changing our understanding of human evolution" will take place on Monday, December 12, 2022, 5 p.m. in the Great Hall of the University of Vienna. Invitation to the inaugural lecture (PDF))

Research Areas:

* Radiocarbon dating using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)
* Compound-specific radiocarbon sample preparation and pretreatment chemistry
* The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic periods of Eurasia, Neanderthals, Denisovans and anatomically modern humans
* Archaeological chronologies

Curriculum vitae:

Born 1966 Cambridge, UK
1984-1989 BA (First Class), University of Otago (New Zealand)
1989-1990 MA (Distinction). University of Otago (New Zealand)
1990-1993 D.Phil. University of Waikato (New Zealand)
1994-1996 Post-doctoral scientist, Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, University of Waikato, Hamilton (New Zealand)
1996-2001 Deputy Director, Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, University of Waikato, Hamilton (New Zealand)
2001-2003 Senior Archaeologist, Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford (UK)
2003-2018 Deputy Director, Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford (UK)
2011-2018 Director, Advanced Studies Centre, Keble College, Oxford (UK)
2018-2021 Director, Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford (UK)
Since August 2021 Professor of Scientific Archaeology at the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna