Biography and publications

Biography

Jean-Jacques Hublin is a paleoanthropologist, author of numerous works on the evolution of Neanderthals and the African origins of modern man.

He has played a pioneering role in the development of virtual Paleoanthropology, which makes extensive use of medical and industrial imaging techniques, and computer technology to reconstruct and analyze fossil remains. He is also interested in the evolution of growth rhythms and brain development in hominids, and in the history of his discipline.

After a career as a researcher at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, Jean-Jacques Hublin was appointed Professor at the University of Bordeaux-I (1999). Since 2004, he has been Professor at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany), where he created the Human Evolution Department. He teaches at the University of California, Berkeley (1992), Harvard University (1997) and Stanford University (1999 and 2011). Since 2010, he has been a regular lecturer at Leiden University (Netherlands). In 2011, he was chosen to be the first president of the newly founded European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (ESHE).

From 2014 to 2021, Jean-Jacques Hublin is visiting professor in the international Paleoanthropology chair at the Collège de France. In 2017, he and Prof. Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer led an international team that unearthed the remains of primitiveHomo sapiens associated with stone tools and faunal remains at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco.

In September 2021, Jean-Jacques Hublin becomes Professor of Paleoanthropology at the Collège de France. He will head the Paleoanthropology team at the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en biologie.

Biography

Jean-Jacques Hublin holds the chair of paleoanthropology at the Collège de France, where he also leads the research team Paleonthropology of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biology. He was first recruited by the French "Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique" as junior researcher and eventually lead a research unit of this institution in Paris (1981-2000). He then joined the University of Bordeaux as a full professor (1999-2004). He also taught at the University of California at Berkeley (1992), Harvard University (1997), Stanford University (1999 and 2011) and several years at the University of Leiden (2010-2020). In 2004, Professor Hublin joined the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, where he established and headed the Department of Human Evolution. He is also the founder of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (ESHE) and had the honor of serving as its president from 2011 to 2020.

Jean-Jacques Hublin has played a pioneering role in the development of virtual paleoanthropology. In the course of his scientific career, the origins of Neandertals and Homo sapiens, and especially the interactions between these two groups, have occupied a central place. To address these issues, he has conducted fieldwork in Europe and North Africa where he discovered the earliest forms of our species. More recently, he has been involved in the study of Denisovans in Russia and China. Finally, Professor Hublin has contributed to the history of paleoanthropology, notably with the publication of a biography of Jacques Boucher de Perthes, the French founder of prehistoric archeology.

Research program: Paleoanthropology

Selected bibliography

Boucher de Perthes, the romantic origins of prehistory

Cohen C. and Hublin J.-J., Boucher de Perthes, les origines romantiques de la Préhistoire, Paris, Belin, 2017, 400 p.
When other men inhabited the earth: new insights into our origins

Hublin J.-J. and Seytre B., Quand d'autres hommes peuplaient la terre : nouveaux regards sur nos origines, Paris, Flammarion, 2008, 267 p.
The Evolution of Hominin Diets: Integrating Approaches to the Study of Palaeolithic Subsistence

Hublin J.-J. and Richards M. P., The Evolution of Hominin Diets: Integrating Approaches to the Study of Palaeolithic Subsistence, in Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology, Dordrecht, Springer, 2009, 270 p.
Modern Origins: A North African Perspective

Hublin J.-J. and McPherron S., Modern Origins: A North African Perspective, in Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology, Dordrecht, Springer, 2012, 244 p.

Past chairs

Jean-Jacques Hublin

Paleoanthropology

2021 - today

Biography

Biography

Selected bibliography

Past chairs

Jean-Jacques Hublin

Research center

Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Biology (CIRB)