Dr. Mirjana Roksandic, Ph.D.

Mirjana Roksandic is an esteemed biological anthropologist. She is a professor in the anthropology department, and coordinator of the interdisciplinary program in bioanthropology at The University of Winnipeg. She is also biology graduate from the U. of W. and adjunct graduate faculty in anthropology at the University of Manitoba. Her expertise, extensive field experience, and commitment to her students’ success make Roksandic a respected educator.

Roksandic asks the big questions about when, how and why humans have moved across continents and vast expanses of lands and sea in the context of human evolution and adaptation to climatic fluctuations. She is the only faculty member in Manitoba with an active research program in paleoanthropology but has received immense support from her peers and the community here in Winnipeg.

Roksandic’s innovative research offers insights into the world of ancient humans. Her team found the oldest human remains ever discovered in the Balkans – a 500,000-year-old jawbone of an early Homo in Mala Balanica Cave – as well as the first Neanderthal discovered in Serbia, a 100,000-year-old tooth from Pešturina Cave. She also has conducted research in Portugal, Cuba and Nicaragua, using archaeological evidence to understand the hunter-gatherer and early-agricultural populations in these regions.

Prof. Roksandic’s work is changing our understanding of these areas and the early people who inhabited them.

As a trailblazing woman in science, Roksandic is transforming understandings in anthropology. She is an inspiration and role model who is contributing to the advancement of science.