Board

President

Sandra Lösch

Sandra studied biology with a major in physical anthropology and human genetics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) in Germany. She received her PhD in 2009 from the Institute of Forensic Medicine at LMU with a thesis on a medieval skeletal collective from alpine Bavaria. She has been head of the Anthropology Department at the Institute of Forensic Medicine since 2010 and habilitated at the Medical Faculty of the University of Bern in 2019. Her team processes human remains on excavations and in the laboratory, and supervise cantonal and international excavations. She also leads scientific projects and teaches at the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Philosophy and History and the Faculty of Law. She supervises students on master and doctoral level at the University of Bern and acts as a reviewer for theses of international universities, for peer-review journals, as well as for international research funding bodies.

Main research interests: forensics, bioarchaeology, nutrition, mobility, paleopathology, prehistory and early history, life in ancient Egypt

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3442-9764

Vice-president

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).

Main research interests: palaeopathology, osteoarchaeology, funerary practices, prehistoric to post-medieval populations

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7904-808X

Secretary

David Roth

David studied prehistoric and archaeological sciences as well as Prehistory and Early History at the University of Basel. He completed his Master's degree in Archaeoanthropology in 2019. In his master's thesis, he investigated taphonomic changes and perimortem violence on Neolithic skeletons from the El Trocs cave in the Pyrenees. Since 2020, he has been working at the Archäologische Bodenforschung Basel-Stadt as an anthropologist and technical supervisor. He is currently supervising the excavation in Freie Strasse. Additionally, he also works at the Natural History Museum Basel. The practical application of physical anthropology during excavations and the workflow between anthropology and archaeology are important to him.

Main areas of research: Physical anthropology, traumatology, workflow and the interdisciplinary connection between archaeology and anthropology

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 between 2008 and 2009 in the Archaeological Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Madison (US). Currently, she is lecturer and scientific assistant 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.

Main research interests: bioanthropology, dental anthropology, isotope geochemistry, peopling dynamics, mobility, lifestyles, paleodiet, prehistoric and historical periods, funerary archaeology, Europe, Africa

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1372-7420

Chief Editor

Claudine Abegg

Claudine completed a Masters in forensic archaeology and anthropology at the University of Cranfield (UK). After that, she pursued a PhD on the state of health of neolithic populations of Western Switzerland, looking at all paleopathological lesions in available necropolises in the area, which she successfully defended in 2019.

She went on the be a forensic anthropologist at the University Centre of Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva until 2023. Since 2024 onwards, she has been working on Prof. Marie Besse’s SNSF project on craftspeople during the Bell Beaker period around the Mont-Blanc. In parallel, as an independent anthropologist, she has been mandated by the Vaud canton to carry out anthropological analysis in the context of planned fieldwork or provenance studies.

Research interests: paleopathology, osteological collection management, ethics in physical anthropology, neolithic studies

Webmaster

Lara Indra

Lara completed her Bachelor's at the Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science (IPAS) of the University of Basel in Prehistory and Archaeological Sciences. In the following, she worked in anthropology (forensics and bioarchaeology) during several internships and did her Master's in Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology at Cranfield University in England. Since 2020 she is located at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Bern, working on forensic cases (until mid-2024 also archaeological remains). In 2024 she further completed her PhD in forensic anthropology and taphonomy and since then, additionally works for the Forensic Unit of the Cantonal Police Bern.

Research interests: Forensic anthropology, taphonomy, animal scavenging, Disaster Victim Identification (DVI)

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6644-2133