Svante Pääbo, Doctor honoris causa from the University of Liège

The University of Liège welcomed Professor Svante Pääbo, 2022 Nobel Prize laureate in Medicine and a pioneer in palaeogenetics, to confer upon him the title of Doctor honoris causa. During a ceremony presided over by Rector Anne-Sophie Nyssen, he delivered a lecture entitled “An Archaic Perspective on Human Origins” to an audience of over 300 attendees. The following day, at the GIGA institute, he engaged with researchers on diverse topics such as neurogenesis, animal genetics, and experimental archaeology. 

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n 17 December, the University of Liège welcomed Professor Svante Pääbo, laureate of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Medicine, a pioneer in palaeogenetics and Director Emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discoveries about the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution. Rector Anne-Sophie Nyssen presented him with an honorary doctorate from ULiège, before he gave a lecture entitled ‘An Archaic Perspective on Human Origins’, which was attended by over 300 members of the university community. This was the first lecture in a series of three major scientific conferences scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year, under the theme ‘Sciences, freedoms, democracies’.

Anneline Pinson, Research Associate at Fund For Scientific Research FNRS in the neuroendocrinology laboratory at ULiège's GIGA-Neurosciences, who has published several scientific articles with Svante Pääbo, presented ULiège's new honorary doctor.

Enriching scientific exchanges at GIGA

On Wednesday 18 December, Professor Svante Pääbo visited the GIGA Institute to hear about the work of Professor Laurent Nguyen (Research Director Fund for Scientific Research - FNRS) on neurogenesis, Professor Michel Georges (Francqui Prize) on animal genetics and Professor Pierre Close (Senior Research Associate FNRS) on the role of proteome expression in the development of cancer. The GIGA was also joined by the team of Prof Veerle Rots (Francqui Prize), Director of the Traceolab, whose work on the use of stone tools by Neanderthals was presented by Noora Taipale, Postdoctoral Researcher FNRS. There was a lively exchange of views, and expressions of interest point to future contacts with Professor Svante Pääbo's teams.

Links

About Professor Svante Pääbo

About the researchers from the GIGA Institute and Traceolab 

About ULiège's major academic conferences