The best in my area

In my opinion there are several biological anthropologists that could be the best in their specific research areas. In the investigation of Ancient DNA, i'm sure that the best one is Svante Pääbo. He didn't study anthropology, but his research and investigation focus are bioanthropological issues or are related to this field.

He was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1955. He studied many things at the Uppsala University such as History of Science, Egyptology and Russian. But at the the end, he decided to study medicine at the same University. He earned his PhD from 1986, and then he did post-doctoral studies in the Zürich University (Switzerland) and in Berkeley (USA). Since 1997, he has been director of the Department of Evolutionary Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany). This institute is one of the top ones in the bioanthropological research in the whole world. He had received several Prizes in his career, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (the highest honour awarded for a researcher in Germany). In 2007, Pääbo was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of the year.

I think he's the best in his area, because he was one of the pioneers in using and creating Ancient DNA methods ( He began his run of discoveries in 1985 when he isolated DNA from a 2,400 years old egyptian mummy). He developed methods for the retrieval of DNA sequences from archaeological and paleontological remains. More specifically, he has been continuously improving the criteria necessary to support the authenticity of DNA sequences retrieved from ancient specimens.

He used the same techniques that he developed, to elucidate the evolutionary history of humans, hominids and pleistocene mammmals. For example, he and his team are studying DNA sequences from Neanderthals, ground sloths and cave bears . In a collaborative project with other laboratories, he used techniques to the reconstruction of the Neanderthal genome (one of the greatest works in bionathropology ever!)

He had also compare DNA from human, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans in order to understand our similarities and differences, and to gain a better understanding of the origin of H. sapiens and our closest relatives. In August 2002, Pääbo's department published findings about the "language gene" (FOXP2), that has been found damaged in persons with language disabilities.

I really admire Pääbo because many reasons; he's the best in his area, he developed several new methods, he found amazing new discoveries, and every year he published a lot of papers, works and investigations that helps us to understand the origins of our species, and to get insight what means to be human.