Nicole Boivin

Nicole Boivin obtained her BSc in Cellular, Molecular and Microbial Biology from the University of Calgary in 1992. Surrendering to a long-term interest in archaeology, she later began graduate studies in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, earning an MPhil in Archaeology in 1996 and a PhD in 2001. Following Post-Doctoral Fellowships based at the University of Cambridge and then the University of Paris, she took up a Senior Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford in 2008, where she was also a Senior Fellow of Jesus College. From 2016-2022, Nicole Boivin was Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, where she established the world-leading Department of Archaeology. She is currently based at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, and is an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland, and Research Affiliate at Griffith University, Australia. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Nicole Boivin's research has been funded by the European Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council UK, Natural Environment Research Council UK, British Academy, Fyssen Foundation, National Geographic, and other prestigious research organisations. Her research has explored topics ranging from the emergence and spread of our species to the history of globalised trade and biological exchange, and has featured in policy reports by the UN, WWF, IPBES, UNESCO, FAO, OECD, UNDP, and World Bank, amongst others. She has published four books and over 200 research articles, and her findings feature regularly in high impact journals and the international media. Her current work is focused on understanding the many ways that humans have transformed global ecosystems over the long term, and the important role that the past can play in shaping a better Anthropocene. Nicole Boivin is also engaged in efforts to transform research governance and address enduring problems of gender inequity in academia.