Greek paleoanthropologist Katerina Harvati has been named the 2026 recipient of the Albert Einstein World Award of Scien...

Greek paleoanthropologist Katerina Harvati has been named the 2026 recipient of the Albert Einstein World Award of Science, one of the most prestigious scientific honors in the world. The award is given annually by the World Cultural Council, a Mexico-based organization, and selected by an interdisciplinary committee that includes multiple Nobel laureates. Harvati, a professor at the University of Tübingen in Germany since 2009, was recognized for work that has fundamentally reshaped how scientists understand human origins and migration. The expert committee specifically credited her with providing definitive scientific evidence that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens are distinct human species, and for confirming the African origin of modern humans and mapping their migration routes. Among her most significant discoveries is the Apidima-1 fossil found in Greece, the oldest Homo sapiens fossil ever identified in Eurasia. Her analysis proved that modern humans arrived in Europe roughly 150,000 years earlier than the scientific community had previously believed. Her excavations in Greece and the Balkans also showed that the region served as a refuge and migration corridor for both humans and animals during the coldest periods of the Ice Age. Archaeological sites she studied in Greece document human presence in the area going back approximately 700,000 years. Most recently, Harvati's team discovered the oldest known wooden handmade tools in the world at a site in Megalopolis, Greece, dating back around 430,000 years. Describing the find to To Vima, she said the two wooden artifacts showed clear signs of human modification and use, with one likely serving as a bark-removal or digging tool and the other representing an entirely new tool type not seen before. The award ceremony will be held on November 2 at the National University of Córdoba in Argentina. Harvati was born in Greece and holds degrees from Columbia University and the City University of New York. #Greece #Science #HumanOrigins