Christina Warinner

Christina (Tina) Warinner is Sally Starling Seaver Associate Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute and John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She is also a group leader in the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and a professor of biological sciences at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, in Germany.

Warinner specializes in biomolecular archaeology, with an emphasis on reconstructing the prehistory of human foods and the evolution of the microbiome. She is known for her pioneering work in ancient DNA and proteins research, which has contributed significant insights on prehistoric human health, ancestral human oral and gut microbiota, the origins of dairying, and past human migrations. She was a 2014 Kavli Frontiers of Science participant and a 2012 TED Fellow, and her TED Talks have been viewed more than 2 million times. In addition to her research, she is actively engaged in public outreach and created the Adventures in Archaeological Science coloring book (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 2017), now available in 18 languages, including many indigenous and underrepresented languages.

Warinner received her MA and PhD at Harvard University and completed her postdoctoral training at the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and at the University of Oklahoma. She was previously a presidential research professor and assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma and a visiting associate professor at the Technical University of Denmark.

Anthropology Professor Nabs Award for Best Scientific Paper (Harvard Gazette, 2/15/23)

Turns Out Developing a Taste for Carbs Wasn’t a Bad Thing (Harvard Gazette, 5/10/21)

Ancient Tooth Tarter Provides Glimpse into Early Trade and Menu Items (Harvard Gazette, 3/22/21)

Filling Gaps in Our Understanding of How Cities began to Rise (Harvard Gazette, 5/29/20)

The Archaeology of Plaque (Yes, Plaque) (Harvard Gazette, 11/19/19)