I am the head of the Pan-African Evolution Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany. I am an archaeological scientist interested in exploring the articulation between genetics, biogeography and material culture phylogeny to further theoretical, methodological and scientific advances in the field of human evolution. My research combines primary fieldwork in West and North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula with experimental and quantitative approaches integrated with diverse sources of information (e.g. genetic, palaeoclimate) in order to test competing hypotheses about human evolution.