Agenda
Upcoming Institut Pasteur general lecture with Paleoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin, on Tuesday November 17, 2026
The Institut Pasteur is delighted to invite the entire Institut Pasteur community to the upcoming Institut Pasteur general lecture entitled "From fossils to molecules: rethinking our origins," given by paleoanthropologist and member of the French Academy of Sciences Jean-Jacques Hublin on November 17, 2026, from 4.30 to 5.45pm, in the CIS auditorium and via Zoom.
The idea behind this lecture series, jointly coordinated by the Scientific Affairs Division and the Department of Communications and Public Affairs, is to invite renowned experts from fields other than biology (natural sciences, formal science, humanities and social sciences, etc.) to come and share their research in an accessible way to stimulate creativity at the Institut Pasteur, foster acculturation and spark curiosity about key societal issues that complement the themes in the Pasteur 2030 Strategic Plan.
Paleoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin is a Professor at the Collège de France, holder of the Chair in Paleoanthropology since 2021 and a member of the French Academy of Sciences since 2023. From 2004 to 2021, he was Director of the Human Evolution Department at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, where he led a team of around 15 scientists.
He specializes in human evolution, focusing his research on hominin diversification over the past million years. The origins and evolutionary processes of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens and the interactions between these two groups have been a central thread in his scientific career. He has conducted field work in Europe and North Africa, where he revealed the oldest forms of our species. This discovery, which earned him the 2023 Balzan Prize, served as the basis for a pan-African model of modern human emergence. He also played a pioneering role in the development of virtual paleoanthropology, using imaging techniques and IT tools to create and analyze digital avatars of fossils. The use of these techniques enabled him to demonstrate changes in the growth and individual development processes of these fossil groups and the evolution of their encephalon.
Access to DNA and ancient proteins has fundamentally transformed research on human origins. These data can help identify fragmentary remains, confirm family links between ancient human populations and trace previously unsuspected population movements and admixtures. This lecture will consider some specific examples – genetic exchanges between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, the discovery of Denisovans and new knowledge about the first Homo sapiens populations in Europe – to show how molecular approaches have changed our approach to human evolution, while raising new questions. It will also highlight the limits of these approaches and the need to compare results with morphological, chronological and archaeological data to understand the diversity and history of past populations.
Save the date of Tuesday November 17, 2026 to attend the lecture by Jean-Jacques Hublin on "From fossils to molecules: rethinking our origins" and ask your questions.
The event will be followed by a drinks reception to offer an opportunity for more informal discussions.
For those who are unable to come to the auditorium in person, here is the link to join the event via Zoom (open in your browser). The presentation will be in French but simultaneous interpreting in English will be available via the Zoom AI Companion.