Christina Warinner

Christina Warinner is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University and Group Leader of Microbiome Sciences in the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. She specializes in the analysis of ancient DNA and proteins, and her research focuses on the study of ancient biomolecules to better understand past human diet, health, and the evolution of the human microbiome. She has conducted groundbreaking studies on the evolution and changing ecology of the human oral microbiome, including publishing the oldest oral microbiome to date from a 100,000-year-old Neanderthal, and she has published extensively on prehistoric migrations, the origins and spread of dairy pastoralism, and the biodiversity of the human gut microbiome.

In addition to her research, she is passionate about public education and outreach, and she created the Adventures in Archaeological Science coloring book, now available in more than fifty languages, including many indigenous and underrepresented languages (http://christinawarinner.com/outreach/children/adventures-in-archaeological-science/). She is also engaged in the open science movement, and her research group has been actively involved in improving scholarly communication, data sharing, and research transparency.