Board

President

Sandra Lösch

Sandra Lösch studied biology with main subject physical anthropology at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich (LMU), Germany. She received a PhD at the Institute of Forensic Medicine (LMU) for the investigation of human remains from a medieval burial site in alpine Bavaria, Germany. Since 2010 she is head of the Department of Physical Anthropology at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at University of Bern, Switzerland. Her team works on human remains and excavations for different Swiss Cantons and internationally, for instance in Italy, Turkey and Egypt. Currently she is leading projects about Neolithic communities, Iron Age societies and Early Medieval burials funded by the Swiss National Fund. Sandra Lösch is teaching at the Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Humanities and Faculty of Law and she is supervising master-, doctoral- and PhD students.

Research topics: forensics, identification of human remains, stable isotopes, social stratigraphy, nutrition, migration, paleopathology, prehistoric Europe, ancient Egypt, bioarchaeology.

Vice-president

Sandra Pichler

After completing her PhD at the University of Freiburg (D), Sandra was based at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (D) as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Volkswagen Foundation funded project «Archive der Vergangenheit». She then joined Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt (D) as a field anthropologist until she moved to the University of Basel (CH) in 2007, first as a Research Associate in the SNF-funded «Neue Grundlagen für sozialgeschichtliche Forschungen in der Prähistorischen Archäologie» project and then as Lecturer. Since 2014, Sandra has been Head of the Archaeoanthropology work group at the Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science unit (IPAS) of the university’s Department of Environmental Sciences. She engages in research and teaches courses in osteoarcheology and archeometry, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Research interests: cross-disciplinary themes combining biological anthropology, archeology and the sciences, stable isotope analysis, paleodemography, trauma analysis, taphonomy and archeothanatology.

Secretary

Christine Cooper

Christine studied physical anthropology in Zürich. Both her master’s (2003) and doctoral research (2010, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz) focused on trauma in victims of medieval and post-medieval battles.

From 2004 to 2010 she was a research assistant at the University of Bern (Anthropology Workgroup, Institute of Medical History). Since 2010 she is employed as an anthropologist at the Archaeology Department/Office of Culture of the Principality of Liechtenstein as well as at the University of Bern (Anthropology Department, Institute of Forensic Medicine).

Research topics: palaeopathology, osteoarchaeology, funerary practices, prehistoric to post-medieval populations

Treasurer

Jocelyne Desideri

Jocelyne studied prehistoric archaeology and specialized in bioanthropology in the Biology section at the University of Geneva. Her research has always evolved within interdisciplinary projects dealing mainly with the past population lifestyles and peopling dynamics through a bioanthropological perspective. Within her academic career, she quickly specialized in dental anthropology for both her master's thesis (2001) and her doctoral research (2007). She has progressively integrated new methodologies into her research. Thus, after training in aDNA analysis at the aDNA Laboratory of Lakehead University (Canada), Jocelyne completed a postdoctoral fellowship in 2008-2009 in the Archaeological Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Madison (US). Today, she is lecturer and scientific assistant in the Department of Genetics and Evolution at the University of Geneva. Since 2013, her main mission is to develop research in bioanthropology, in particular by training the next generation of students (bachelor, master and PhD). In addition to the teaching of bioanthropology, she conducts two field-schools (Albania and Bulgaria) each year to familiarize students with funerary archaeology.

Research topics: bioanthropology, human osteology, biological identification of the skeleton, dental anthropology, isotope geochemistry, peopling dynamics, mobility, lifestyles, paleodiet, prehistoric and historical periods, funerary archaeology, Europe, Africa

Chief Editor

Amelie Alterauge

Amelie Alterauge studied prehistoric archaeology and biological anthropology at the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg, Germany. After her graduation in 2012, she worked in the German Mummy Project at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums in Mannheim. Since 2014 she is working as a scientific associate at the Department of Physical Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Bern, Switzerland. In her PhD project, she investigates human mummified remains from early modern church crypts in Germany.

Research interest: physical anthropology, bioarchaeology, mummies, computed tomography, X-ray, post-medieval archaeology

Webmaster

Negahnaz Moghaddam

Negahnaz Moghaddam studied biology with the main subjects Human Genetics and Physical Anthropology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU), Germany. She worked as a scientific associate at the Department of Physical Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Bern (Switzerland) from 2011 till 2017. Her PhD project focused on the analyses on human remains from Late Iron Age Switzerland, which she finished in 2016. Her Post-Doc project included anthropological and bioarchaeological research on modern human remains from Switzerland. She is continuing her work at the Unit of Forensic Imaging and Anthropology, University Center of Legal Medicine, Lausanne-Geneva (Switzerland) since November 2017.

Research interest: physical anthropology, bioarchaeology, stable isotope analyses, diet, migration, social stratigraphy, inhumations, paleopathology, forensics