Many congratulations to Susana Carvalho who, this week, has become our newest Professor! The University's Recognition of Distinction scheme has conferred on Susana the title of Professor of Paleoanthropology.
Professor Carvalho is a Primatologist and Paleoanthropologist interested in the evolution of behaviour and in using extant primates as models for our early hominin records. She has carried out long-term work with wild chimpanzees and baboons in Africa, and has been pivotal in the broadening of archaeology to include non-human records and earlier Pliocene records. She is one of the founders of the field of primate archaeology and has projects in East Africa (Kenya) and West Africa (Guinea). In 2015 she established the role of Director of Paleontology and Primatology in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, leading the Paleo-Primate Project and in 2018 she started the Oxford-Gorongosa Paleo-Primate Field School, a unique opportunity for students to get multidisciplinary field training in animal behaviour and paleoanthropology. In 2016 Susana founded the Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab.
We also offer our warm congratulations to Laura Van Broekhoven, Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, on becoming a Professor this week.