HABCOM Committee Members

Pete Langdon is a Professor of Quaternary Science within Geography & Environment at the University of Southampton, UK. He is primarily interested in palaeolimnology, specifically subfossil chironomids (non-biting midges). Beyond this specialism he has wide ranging interests, broadly focused around reconstructing climate change; geoarchaeology; lacustrine biogeochemical cycling; and biodiversity studies. He currently works on a range of research projects including: biogeochemical interactions in Arctic lakes, with foci on the role of methane derived carbon within food-webs, and the impact of landscape change drivers on lake carbon and nitrogen cycling; better understanding of regime shifts (tipping points) in lake ecosystems, and comparing empirical data with modelling theory; and using a range of palaeoenvironmental techniques (insects, biomarkers, aDNA) to understand why and how the building of lake settlement islands (crannogs) fit into Celtic landscapes over the last 3000 years. He is currently working on lake ecosystems in every continent bar Antarctica.

Dr. Prabhin Sukumaran is an accomplished Quaternary geologist with expertise in geomorphological modeling, GIS, remote sensing, micro-seismic studies, geochemical analysis, micro-paleontology, sedimentology, environmental magnetic research, geo-archaeology, paleoanthropology, and climatic reconstructions. He is currently affiliated with Charotar University of Science and Technology (CHARUSAT), Gujarat. Dr. Sukumaran's distinguished career includes prestigious awards and fellowships at both national and international levels, including the Indian National Science Academy visiting scientist fellowship and Fulbright-Nehru academic and professional excellence fellowship.

Prof. Shanti Pappu, is the founder/secretary, Sharma Centre for Heritage Education (SCHE), India. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Deccan College, researching the prehistoric archaeology of northern Tamil Nadu, under the guidance of Prof.K.Paddayya. She has over 20 years of experience in prehistoric archeology, directing (along with Dr. Kumar Akhilesh) research projects at the Palaeolithic sites of Attirampakkam and Sendrayanpalayam and microlithic sites of southern Tamil Nadu. She is jointly directing (with Dr. K.Akhilesh) the project Prehistory and Palaeoenvironments in SE India including regional surveys, test-pits and excavations, with multidisciplinary research inputs from geomorphological, chronological and palaeoenvironmental studies. The use of satellite imagery and GIS with field surveys and laboratory studies was also conducted to investigate both research and heritage management issues in northern Tamil Nadu. She has recruited and coordinated international teams from Spain, France, the USA and Sri Lanka to work in India, and has established collaborations with key research institutions in India and abroad. She is researching the life and work of R.B.Foote and is interested in the issues related to the history of archaeology in India. She has published 2 books and over 30 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature (2018) and Science (2011). She is recently appointed Advisory board, INQUA-HaBCom and Executive Committee, IPPA, and is Joint-Secretary, ISPQS. She has participated in conferences/workshops in India and abroad; and along with K.Akhilesh has organized workshops on prehistory under the R.B.Foote Memorial series in India. She is responsible for developing the public archaeology and outreach programs at the SCHE and in developing the children’s museum. Her interests lie in prehistory and Quaternary studies, history of archaeology, ethno-and experimental archaeology. 

Rathnasiri Premathilake is currently working as a Senior Lecturer at the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeolog y, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, and his main work includes postgraduate level teaching, fieldwork, laboratory experiments, excavations and field-surveys. He completed PhD dissertations at the Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, School of Geoscience, Stockholm University, Sweden in 2003. After completing his PhD, Premathilake has gone on to hold postdoctoral positions and postdoctoral vising research fellow in the School of Palaeoecology, Archaeology and Geography, Queens University, Belfast, UK and, he continues to work in close collaboration as an Associate Researcher with the Department of Ecology and Palynology, French Institute of Pondicherry and the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education in India. Broadly, Premathilake is involved research and education in the lines of Quaternary environmental reconstructions (vegetation and climate) and understanding human activities by means of palynology, micro-charcoal, organic carbon, michoriza fungi spores, foraminifera, dinoflagellate, thermally mature analysis and phytolith, together with radiocarbon dating on archaeological and palaeoecological sites in south and southeast Asia.

I’m an archaeologist currently working on the Palaeolithic hominin behaviour in the Middle Wainganga basin, Central India. My research is focused on the behavioural implications of the distribution of Palaeolithic sites and the technological strategies noted during the Acheulian and the Late Palaeolithic phase.

I’m an earth systems geographer using tree rings and lake sediments to study paleoclimate, hydroclimatic processes, and the interaction between the climate and human systems. I specialize in dendrochronological reconstructions over the Common Era and my research aims to understand the role of climate variability in changing water resources.

She is a palaeoecologist and environmental archaeologist with a broad interest in late Quaternary environmental change. Her specialist expertise lies in the analysis of sub-fossil beetles in a variety of palaeoenvironments. Much of her work has been concerned with human-environment interactions in the early–mid Holocene, and associated long term biodiversity change, late glacial climate change, early Holocene landscape structure in response to natural and human-induced change, and the transition to agriculture in the Neolithic.

My research interests are ecology and ecosystems in lakes. I am skilled in looking for tipping points in ecosystems, detecting early warning signals of critical transition, and indicators of ecosystem structure. I mainly forcus on diatoms but also interests on other phytoplankton and zooplankton.

Mohamed Sahnouni is currently Research Professor and Coordinator of the Archaeology Program at the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH) (Spain). He received doctoral degrees in Quaternary Geology from the University Pierre & Marie Curie (France) and in Anthropology from Indiana University Bloomington (USA). His academic and research interests include Paleoanthropology (with focus on early hominin technological and subsistence behavior in relation to Paleoecology), Old World Paleolithic Archaeology, Prehistory of North Africa, Plio-Pleistocene Stratigraphy and Paleoecology, Geoarchaeology and Bone Taphonomy. Sahnouni is currently directing paleoanthropological research projects in Africa involving a multidisciplinary international team of scientists to investigate: 1) the timing and character of earliest human occupation in North Africa; and 2) Homo erectus behavior and adaptation in arid environment. He is also collaborating with Indian colleagues to investigate hominin dispersal in Asia. He extensively published his research in high impact journals including Science, Journal of Human Evolution, Journal of Archaeological Science, Quaternary Science Reviews, Quaternary International, Geobios, L’Anthropologie, Palevol, etc.

My research concerns Ecology, Biogeography and Evolutionary Biology. It mainly investigates the mechanisms underlying population and community dynamics at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Theoretical and methodological approaches are developped and applied to study tropical and temperate ecosystems (tropical forests in India and New Caledonia, grasslands and weed communities in Europe, high-elevation peatlands in Bolivia...).

Her research, focusing primarily on South Asia and, to a lesser extent, Southeast Asia, the Pacific and the Southwestern United States, addresses a number of related issues including: the formation and transformation of anthropogenic landscapes; the causes and consequences of agricultural change; colonialism and imperialism; and the interplay between political power, economic organization, and social strategies of production and exchange.More on this  https://web.sas.upenn.edu/pennpaleoecology/research/
She is the coordinator of the Landuse 6K part of PAGES LandCover6K Working Group since it began in 2015 and is now in its second phase. This is the Archeology based land use mapping of LC6K. She has been working closely with INQUA HABCOM through the IFG HoLA.

After graduating at the University of Milan (Italy) in Natural Sciences (Botany), I worked as a contract scientist at the Archaeological Museum of Como and left the team in 1993 to start a PhD at the University of Cambridge. After finishing my PhD I took up a position as research fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, also teaching archaeology and human evolution at the Institute for Continuing Education (Madingly Hall) of the University of Cambridge. In 2004 I became affiliated lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and in 2005 director of studies in archaeology and anthropology at St. Edmund's College in the University of Cambridge. Since July 2005 I am ICREA research professor first at the IMF-CSIC and from 2014 at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. I currently coordinate the Complexity and Socio-Ecological Dynamics (CaSEs) research group and I teach in the UPF Master in Global History.  

My background is in archaeobotany and environmental archaeology, and I investigate the socio-ecological dynamics of past human populations from Mediterranean to tropical environments. My interests span from past vegetation histories, the modelling and simulation of processes in human behavioural change, people-plants co-evolutionary dynamics, long term trajectories of biodiversity and sustainability in prehistoric societies, and the origin and resilience of agriculture. Agriculture had an immense impact on humans and non-humans, and the future of our world is linked to making agriculture sustainable by maintaining biodiversity, revaluating traditional knowledge and mitigating environmental impact. Key areas for my work are South and West Asia, and South America.

She is a professor in botany-vegetation history/palaeoecology and work within/coordinate several projects on environmental-vegetation history over long time perspective. This research has applications within archeology and present environmental questions such as management of cultural landscapes, biodiversity, and climate development. She is also research coordinator for Environmental Science that includes seven research groups. These groups build up the Section of Environmental Science and Technology (EST).She is overall coordinator of the PAGES LandCover6K Working Group since it began in 2015 which is now in its second phase with two distinct components - pollen based Landcover reconstruction and Archeology based land use mapping. This working group continues to work closely with INQUA HABCOM through the IFG HoLA.

Yanni Gunnell is Professor of Physical Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Lyon, France. He studies the archives of environmental change and the timescales of continental denudation and material transfer across the landscape. His multidisciplinary focus on geochronology and landscape evolution scenarios adopts a comparative approach, which ranges from cratonic environments to mountain belts and covers different climatic settings. He has worked in parts of India, Africa, Brazil, Peru, North America, Madagascar and Europe, and has published widely in peer-reviewed journals that cover geomorphology, Quaternary geology, geodynamics, as well as geoarchaeology, environmental history, and the social sciences.

My research interests are in water and sediment. I am skilled in water quality, pollutants analyses, species identification of freshwater invertebrates (microscopy), ecosystem restoration, environmental services and monitoring programs.

My research interests are in water and sediment. I am skilled in water quality, pollutants analyses, species identification of freshwater invertebrates (microscopy), ecosystem restoration, environmental services and monitoring programs.