SVANTE PAABO, the founder of the field of ancient DNA, is Director, Department of Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig.
Among his achievements are the first demonstration of DNA survival in an ancient Egyptian mummy, the first amplification of ancient DNA, the first study of the DNA from the Iceman found in the Alps, and the first retrieval of DNA from a Neanderthal in 1997. He won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Pääbo initiated and organized an effort to sequence the entire Neanderthal genome. The first scientific overview of the genome was published in 2009 and was front page news wordwide.
Pääbo’s work and career have been featured on multiple occasions in print media such as The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, and The Economist, as well as on NPR, PBS, and BBC. His work was featured in exhibitions at the Field Museum in Chicago, the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Pääbo is an honorary doctor at several universities, a member of eight scientific academies including the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the German National Academy Leopoldina and the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. He has received numerous scientific prizes and awards and has given more than 400 scientific and popular talks on his work.
In 2007 Time Magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
