Andrea Lukova
Postdoc
Department of Human Origins
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
e-mail:
andrea_lukova@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de
Research interest
My primary research centers on the internal morphology of lower limb bones, utilizing micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) data from great apes, humans, and fossil hominins. This work aims to reconstruct the locomotor diversity within the human lineage. As part of my postdoctoral project at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Human Origins, I am investigating the internal and external morphology, as well as the biomechanics, of the Homo naledi foot to further understand locomotor diversity in early hominins.
Trabecular bone structure
Lower limb biomechanics
Functional morphology
Evolution of bipedalism
Primate locomotion
Curriculum vitae
Career & Education
| 2024 | Postdoctoral researcher - Department of Human Origins, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Research key interest: Foot of Homo naledi |
| 2024 | Postgraduate teaching assistant in Biological Anthropology – Department of Anthropology, University College London |
| 2021 – 2024 | PhD in Anthropology - School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent Dissertation: Functional Morphology of the Hominin Knee: Implications for Locomotor Diversity in the Human Lineage |
| 2018 – 2020 | MA in Anthropology of Past Populations - Department of Anthropology, University of West Bohemia Dissertation: Trabecular Bone Tissue in Primates Wrist Bones |
| 2015 – 2018 | BA in Social and Cultural Anthropology - Department of Anthropology, University of West Bohemia Dissertation: Metamorphoses of the Wrist Bones from Apes to Anatomically Modern Humans: Comparative Study of the Carpal Area Dissertation prize: Recipient of the Faculty Dean’s Award for Outstanding Bachelor’s Thesis |
Internships & Courses
| 2019 – 2020 | Erasmus program in Anthropology - School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent Main interest: Human evolution and functional morphology of the internal bone structure |
| 2019 | Erasmus program in English and Academic Skills - School of Anthropology and Conservation |
| 2013 – 2014 | Course in Science - AZ SMART, Centre of Education |
Fieldwork
| 2018 – 2023 | Lapa do Picareiro (Portugal) – cave excavation – Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition. Cooperation of University of Louisville (Jonathan Haws), University of North Carolina Wilmington (Michael Benedetti), University of Algarve (Nuno Bicho), and University of West Bohemia (Lukáš Friedl). |
Skills & Software
| 3D imaging and segmentation: | Avizo (advanced), 3D Slicer (advanced), MIA (advanced), Dragonfly (good) |
| Cross-sectional geometry: | Morphomap – R package (good), BoneJ (good) |
| Trabecular analysis: | Medtool (advanced) |
| Statistics: | Past (advanced), SPSS Statistics (advanced), R & Rstudio (advanced) |
| Image processing: | Adobe Photoshop (good), Adobe Illustrator (good), GIMP (advanced), Krita (advanced) |
Languages
- Czech (native)
- English (advanced – C1)