ANNA BELFER-COHEN
A retired full professor at the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, Anna studies prehistoric lithic and bone industries, human remains and artistic manifestations. Her main interest lies in the domain of exploring prehistoric beginnings. Thus she has been studying the Upper Palaeolithic period which portrays the spread and flourishing of modern humans Out of Africa, as well as the transition from extractive to productive economies during the later Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic in Western Asia, focusing on what these changes imply vis a vis human cognition, behaviour and adaptation. Besides past projects, relating to the topics above, she is currently involved in the research projects of Kebara and Hayonim caves (Upper-Palaeolithic, and Epi-Palaeolithic), the open-air sites of Nahal Ein Gev II, Upper Besor VI, Fazael IV (Natufian) and the Kaizer Hill quarry (PPNA) in Israel as well as the Upper-Palaeolithic projects at the sites of Dzudzuana, Kotias Klde and Satrublia in Georgia.
JENNIE BRAND-MILLER
Professor Jennie Brand-Miller, AO, FAA, PhD, is a leading nutrition scientist in the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney. She is recognised around the world for her research on carbohydrates, particularly the glycemic index of foods. She has written ~350 publications with over 20,000 total citations and H-index of 71. She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2019. Her popular science books were the first best-selling diet books achieved sales of 3.5 million copies. She is Member of the Order of Australia in 2011, Sir Kempson-Maddox Diabetes Australia Award in 2009 and finalist in Australian of the Year Awards 2006. In 2003, she was awarded a Clunies Ross Medal for her contributions to science and technology in Australia. She is a Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia and the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology. She is also a proud recipient of bilateral cochlear implants for sensorineural deafness.
LES COPELAND
Les Copeland is Emeritus Professor and a former Dean of Agriculture in the University of Sydney. He is a highly cited author in the areas of food and agricultural sciences and the origins of the human diet, and he has been the primary supervisor of 34 PhD graduates. Les is the Editor-in-Chief of the journals Cereal Chemistry (Wiley) and Agriculture (MDPI), a Fulbright Alumnus, a former Director of the Australian Government Cotton Research and Development Corporation, and he has held research positions in the USA and at the Australian National University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales, the recipient of the FB Guthrie Science Medal of the Australasian Grain Science Association, and he was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019 in recognition of his service to agricultural science as an academic and researcher.
LUCY KUBIAK-MARTENS
Lucy Kubiak-Martens, PhD in Archaeobotany, holds the position of Senior Researcher in archaeobotany. She is a partner and co-owner of BIAX Consult Biological Archaeology & Environmental Reconstruction in the Netherlands, a private research company specializing in archaeobotany, paleoecology, and forensic botany.
Lucy’s research interests are in the role of plant foods among hunter-gatherers and early agricultural communities in the temperate regions of Europe and semi-dry regions of Africa. Over the past 25 years, she participated in various research projects in the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Germany, Egypt, Syria, and Sudan. Her published work also reflects her research interests. She is specialized in plant macro remains analysis, which encompasses the examination of seeds and fruits, vegetative plant tissues, and plant fibres. Additionally, she is a leading expert in the identification of carbonized underground storage organs such as roots, tubers, and rhizomes, often referred to as archaeological parenchyma. Her field of research is increasingly focusing on SEM analysis of charred food residues encrusted on pottery and isolated finds of processed plant foods. Since 2018, she has had the honor of being invited as a Guest Lecturer by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology at the University of Groningen, where she delivers annual lectures for the Groningen Research Master Course students in Scientific Approaches to Material Culture.
CAROL PALMER
RENATA SÕUKAND
Renata Sõukand is an Associate Professor of ethnobotany at Ca’ Foscari University in Italy and she has recently successfully concluded an ERC Starting Grant “DiGe”. She have received a PhD in Semiotics and Cultural Theory (2010) from the University of Tartu and has an educational background in pharmacy (BSc) and environmental sciences (MSc). Her main research interests include current and historical ethnobotany of the post-Soviet region, especially Eastern Europe, biocultural diversity, environmental history and ecosemiotics (with the focus on relations between humans and nature). Her ethnobotanical and anthropological field experience in all three Baltic States, Finland, Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Caucasus, Balkans, Iraq, Tajikistan, Slovakia, Greece, Cyprus and Corsica have given her the possibility to observe, compare and reflect upon the inextricable link between sustainability and all aspects of bicultural diversity. She has co-authored of over 100 publications (current h-index=31, over 3000 citations) including both her field experience and historical research on representation of plant use within the folklore collections as well as various other sources influencing the evolution of the plant use.