Mattias Jakobsson – a Wallenberg Scholar 2024


The prestigious Wallenberg Scholar grant is awarded to leading senior researchers in Sweden every five years. It can be freely used for research with no restrictions. 
The Wallenberg Foundation awarded 118 scientists, from 13 Swedish Universities in 2024. Mattias Jakobsson, one of the Center for the Human Past’s Principal Investigators, is one of the twenty awardees from the Uppsala University. His work in the field of human evolution and population genetics challenges established theories about the cradle of humankind.

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“I not only want to map the genes; I also want to understand the genetic process in detail. It’s a question of identifying the genetic changes that made humans clever, driven, and good engineers several hundred thousand years ago.”

Mattias Jakobsson, 2022.

Moving the cradle of humankind

Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation grants SEK 2.1 billion to 118 of Sweden’s top researchers


  • Diachronic reuse of Neolithic burial monuments by Bronze Age newcomers in Southwestern Britain

    Diachronic reuse of Neolithic burial monuments by Bronze Age newcomers in Southwestern Britain

    A new paper, co-authored by Nikola Vuković, Carolina Bernhardsson and Mattias Jakobsson, from the Human Evolution Program at Uppsala University, in close collaboration with British archaeologists, has recently been published in Scientific Reports:Vuković, N., Bernhardsson, C., Edlund, H., Delbarre, G., Smith, M., Darvill, T., … & Jakobsson, M. (2026). Diachronic reuse of Neolithic burial monuments…

  • The Tie That Binds Us?

    The Tie That Binds Us?

    A new article discussing ancient DNA, kinship studies and human connection across time, co-authored by one of our former Human Past SCAS Fellows, Mehmet Somel, has just been published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal. Moots, H. M., Tsosie, K. S., & Somel, M. (2026). The Tie That Binds Us? Challenging the Primacy of DNA in Kinship Studies…

  • A new grant to develop cross-cutting research projects

    A new grant to develop cross-cutting research projects

    Uppsala University Future Institutes (UUniFI), CIRCUS (Centre for Integrated Research on Culture and Society) has decided to support our work on the development of an interdisciplinary research project titled “Mechanisms of Human Migration: Causes, Processes & Consequences“. The UUniFI Circus will provide both financial and administrative support and host a seminar series in which project…