International Committee Members

Presidency
President of the 2024 International Scientific Committee: Jean-Jacques Hublin
Jean-Jacques Hublin, born on November 30, 1953 in Algeria, is a French citizen. After a career at the CNRS, he joined higher education as a professor at the University of Bordeaux (1999–2004). He also taught at the University of California, Berkeley (1992), Harvard University (1997), Stanford University (1999 and 2011), and Leiden University (2010–2020).
In 2004, Professor Hublin created and directed the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Since 2021, he has been a professor at the Collège de France, holding the chair in Paleoanthropology. Jean-Jacques Hublin is the co-founder of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (ESHE), where he served as president from 2011 to 2020.
He was a pioneer in the development of virtual paleoanthropology. The evolution of Neanderthals and the mechanisms of our species’ expansion across the globe have been central to his career. He has also devoted many studies to brain evolution and to growth and development in hominins.
To explore these questions, he conducted fieldwork in Europe and North Africa and has published over 350 scientific papers. He is a Knight of the Legion of Honour and was awarded the Royal Wissam al-Kafaa al-Fikria by H.M. Mohammed VI. Among other distinctions, he received the International Fyssen Prize in 2021 and the Balzan Prize in 2023.

Our Former President: Professor Yves Coppens

The entire team is deeply saddened by the passing of Professor Yves Coppens, President of the International Scientific Committee of the Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology of Monaco, founded by Prince Albert I.
All our thoughts are with his family, the scientific community, and the public.
“Thank you, Godfather, for everything you have done for the Museum, its programs, and its team. You will always remain with us in our hearts and our actions.”

• Director ARSUAGA Juan-Luis
• Professor BAE Gi-Dong
• Professor FACCHINI Fiorenzo
• Professor GUILAINE Jean
• Doctor KAIFU Yousuke, The University Museum, The University of Tokyo

• Doctor LAITMAN Jeffrey
• Professor LIU Wu
• Professor DE LUMLEY Henry
• Doctor MONNIER Jean-Laurent
• Doctor ROCHE Hélène
• Doctor SCHRENK Friedemann
• Honorary Curator  SIMONE Suzanne
• Professor THACKERAY Francis :A South African palaeoanthropologist with a PhD in anthropology from Yale University (USA). He earned degrees in archaeology, zoology, and environmental studies from the University of Cape Town. In Pretoria, he served as Director of the Transvaal Museum (now the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History). Later, in Johannesburg, he headed the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). He is currently an Honorary Research Associate at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits.
  Alongside French and South African collaborators, he participates in the KRP research project focusing on the Plio-Pleistocene hominin cave of Kromdraai, located in the Cradle of Humankind, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He has conducted research on hominin fossils such as “Mrs Ples,” a skull of Australopithecus africanus from Sterkfontein.

• Director TIKHONOV Alexei
• Doctor  SIMON Patrick
• Professor BOUZOUGGAR Abdeljalil : Abdeljalil Bouzouggar is currently Director of the National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage Sciences (INSAP) in Morocco. He holds a PhD in Prehistory and Quaternary Geology from the University of Bordeaux I (France) and a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Liège (Belgium). He joined INSAP in 1998 as a research fellow and became a full professor in 2018.
  He headed the Prehistory Department at INSAP from 2009 to 2013 and leads the scientific team “Origins and evolution of Homo sapiens cultures in Morocco.”
  From 2009 to 2021, he was an associate researcher in the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig. He co-founded and currently chairs the “North Africa” commission of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP).
  He is also an associate researcher at the Mediterranean Laboratory of Prehistory Europe-Africa (CNRS and Aix-Marseille University) since 2013, former resident at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Study (IMéRA) in Marseille (Sept. 2014 – Feb. 2015), and associate research director at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris (2015).
  Abdeljalil Bouzouggar leads several excavation projects in Morocco on the North African Middle Stone Age (MSA) and the MSA–Later Stone Age transition. His research focuses on key sites such as Taforalt’s Grotte des Pigeons, Rhafas, Contrebandiers, Dar es Soltane 1, and Bizmoune caves. He has shown particular interest in MSA lithic assemblages and the emergence of symbolic behavior in North Africa. He is the author of numerous publications in international scientific journals.

Professor ZERESENAY Alemseged