Matthew Skinner

• I am group leader of the Dental Evolution and Development group at the MPI-EVA and am associated to both the Department of Archaeogenetics and Department of Human Origins. My group investigates how the study of fossil teeth and jaws improve our understanding of human and non-human primate evolution.
• I participate in palaeontological fieldwork in Kenya. Current projects include the site of Chesowanja near Lake Baringo and Koobi Fora on the east side of Lake Turkana.
• I am currently principal investigator on the ERC-funded project NewHuman (2019-2025) and founder of the Human Fossil Record.org online archive.

I received my Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology in 2002 from Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. During that time I worked as a forensic anthropology field assistant for three months as part of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Missing Women’s Taskforce and for six months under the United Nations Volunteer Programme in East Timor. I also participated in my first Palaeolithic excavations at Pech de L’Aze (France) and Geissenklösterle (Germany). I received my PhD in Hominid Paleobiology from The George Washington University in 2008 where I studied under the supervision of Prof. Bernard Wood (GWU) and Prof. Jean-Jacques Hublin (Department of Human Evolution, MPI-EVA). Fieldwork projects during my PhD included Dmanisi (Republic of Georgia), Felsotarkany (Hungary), Asbole (Ethiopia) and Illeret (Kenya). I was a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Human Evolution, MPI-EVA (2008-2011) before starting as a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at University College London, United Kingdom. I moved to the School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent in 2011 where I became a professor 2020. In 2023, I started my current position as the Group Leader for Dental Evolution and Development at the MPI-EVA.