At the invitation of Professor Zhang Dongju from the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Professor Rainer Grün, Distinguished Professor at the Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and Professor Shao Qingfeng from Nanjing Normal University visited our university for an academic exchange and presentations on October 23, 2024.
Title: Direct dating of human fossils and the ever-changing story of human evolution
Speaker: Professor Rainer Grün, Australian National University
Title: Case studies of U-series dating of rock art and human fossils in China
Speaker: Professor Shao Qingfeng, Nanjing Normal University
Moderator: Professor Zhang Dongju, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University
Time: October 23, 2024, 14:30
Venue: Room 502, Qilian Hall
Expert Profiles:
Professor Rainer Grün, Distinguished Professor at the Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, has research interests spanning geology and geochronology, Quaternary environmental change, isotope geochemistry, archaeology, and radiation and materials science. He previously served as a senior researcher in the German Science Foundation’s (DFG) advanced research project“Language, Bones, Genes, Tools”at the University of Tübingen and as editor-in-chief of Quaternary Geochronology. Professor Grün pioneered the ESR/U-series dating method, currently the most effective approach for directly dating Quaternary animal and early human fossil teeth. This method uniquely combines ESR and U-series analysis to model uranium migration history, effectively overcoming the dating challenges of "open systems" and achieving accurate dating of fossils. His work has been fundamental to research on early modern human origins and evolution. Professor Grün has published over 300 papers in journals such as Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Quaternary Science Reviews, and Journal of Human Evolution, with more than 13,000 citations.
Professor Shao Qingfeng, Nanjing Normal University, specializes in developing high-precision U-series dating methods and laser ablation in-situ U-series dating techniques, focusing on archaeological chronologies. Using a combined U-series and ESR dating method for fossilized animal teeth, Professor Shao studies the geological ages of archaeological sites. His recent research published in Nature Communications resolved the over-60-year-old debate on the dating of the Liujian Man fossils, providing key chronological data for understanding modern human migration across Eurasia. He has published more than 30 papers in journals such as Nature Communications, Quaternary International, and Quaternary Geochronology.
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University
November 4, 2024
