I’m the head of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, the Vienna µCT Lab, and the research network “HEAS”. My interest is to get as much information as possible about functional morphology from fossils and osteological material. I contributed especially to the development of Virtual Anthropology and evolutionary research regarding modern humans and Neanderthals. Recently, I’m also concerned with applications in archaeology or orthodontics.
I am a geophysicist interested in innovative research into efficient, high-resolution, geophysical prospection and digital documentation methods and their application to geosciences, archaeology and engineering problems. I am motivated by the potential of new techniques permitting the imaging of subsurface structures in unprecedented resolution, revealing hidden man-made and natural treasures. I enjoy sharing insights, findings and know-how with colleagues, students and the interested public.
Deputy director of VIAS, Egyptologist. Research interests: Ceramic analysis and material culture. Late Bronze Age, chronology and cultural interconnections in the Eastern Mediterranean. Development of archaeological methods. Ancient Egyptian Art. Fieldwork in Egypt (Tell el-Daba, Karnak North, and other sites). Principal investigator of the SFB SCIEM 2000, project Cyprus (1999-2011). Guest professor in Uppsala (Sweden) 2010-2013. Currently: field work in Karnak/Egypt (cooperation IFAO).
Dr. Ron Pinhasi is the Head of the Ancient DNA Lab. His research focuses on human evolution including fieldwork projects on the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Caucasus. He held an ERC Starting Grant project (2011-2015) that focused on human genetic history, migrations and admixture, and developed the widely-used ancient DNA optimisation method from the petrous bone.
Birgit Bühler was educated at the University of Vienna, Austria (Pre- & Protohistoric Archaeology: M.A. in 1998, PhD in 2002; Evolutionary Anthropology: MSc in 2020), specializing in Early Medieval Archaeology. Since 2000, she has been employed (part-time) at Vienna Institute for Archaeological Science (VIAS), focusing on the technology of precious metalwork from prehistory to the Middle Ages.
Since 1995 I have been teaching and researching as an archaeologist (assistant professor) at the Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology at the University of Vienna on the Neolithic Period, Copper and especially the Bronze Age with a focus on social, environmental and landscape archaeological issues. As director of studies, I am responsible for the curricula and all study matters. My main research interests are identity, mobility & tradition of Bronze Age populations, human ecology of the Copper Age, deposits in the context of space and ritual, ritual violence, conflict archaeology.
