Our team
The FirPanGen Team will include 11 members and external collaborator. The project comprise a team composed of the PI, staff scientists (6), PhD students (4) and one external collaborator. The team members were chosen based on their long-term interest in the study of the health of ancient populations, as well as complementary research on paleopathological changes and ancient pathogens in the Late Antiquity and the early medieval period. The FirPanGen team also includes scientists who are experts in the field of social and humanitarian sciences (History and Archaeology).
BIOANTHROPOLOGY
Ksenija Djukic
research associate
Ksenija Djukic is a research associate at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade (FMUB) employed in the Centre of Bone Biology. For years, she has been researching human osteological material of the ancient population, with a focus on skeletal remains from necropolises dated to the period of the Late Antique and early medieval period. She fosters and encourages international and interdisciplinary cooperation in the field of determining the health status and paleopathological profile of the ancient population from the great migration period (4-8th century CE).
Veda Mikasinovic
junior research assistant
Veda Mikasinovic is a junior research assistant at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade (FMUB), in the Centre of Bone Biology. She completed her bachelor studies at the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy (UBFZF). Veda is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade in the course Skeletal Biology. In addition to active participation in numerous archaeological investigations, until now she has also been involved in the research of human osteological material, mainly from late antiquity, the early and high medieval period. Her specific scientific interests are focused on paleoepidemiological studies, as well as on the examination of bone microarchitecture associated with metabolic diseases.
Tamara Sarkic
research assistant
Tamara Sarkic is a research assistant at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade (FMUB), in the Centre of Bone Biology. She completed her bachelor studies at the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy (UBFZF). Tamara is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade in the course Skeletal Biology with a research thesis related to bioanthropological analyses of human skeletal material from ancient and late ancient sites in northern Serbia (Sarmatian period). Her thesis focuses on taphonomic analysis of skeletal material, as well as mobility, identity and burial archeology of the Sarmatian population. Her research interest is the bioanthropological analysis of skeletal material from late antique and early medieval cemeteries. It is active in the field of promotion and popularization of science, as well as education of young students.
Igor Vaduveskovic
research assistant
Tamara Sarkic is a research assistant at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade (FMUB), in the Centre of Bone Biology. She completed her bachelor studies at the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy (UBFZF). Tamara is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade in the course Skeletal Biology with a research thesis related to bioanthropological analyses of human skeletal material from ancient and late ancient sites in northern Serbia (Sarmatian period). Her thesis focuses on taphonomic analysis of skeletal material, as well as mobility, identity and burial archeology of the Sarmatian population. Her research interest is the bioanthropological analysis of skeletal material from late antique and early medieval cemeteries. It is active in the field of promotion and popularization of science, as well as education of young students.
HISTORY/ARCHAEOLOGY
Vlada Stankovic
Professor and internationally renowned specialist in Byzantine history and literature
Vlada Stankovic is a Professor and internationally renowned specialist in Byzantine history and literature, and the history and culture of medieval Balkans. Professor Stankovic is the head of the Byzantine history department at the UBFZF, and has been studying the questions of identity on Byzantine borders for more than two decades.
Monika Milosavljevic
Professor at the Department of Archaeology
Monika Milosavljevic is a Professor at the Department of Archaeology (UBFZF). Her research interests lie in sociocultural evolution, the archaeology of identity, and general archaeological and anthropological theory. In recent years, her research interests have also included the investigation of the intersection between the natural and social facets of (medieval) archaeology.
Marko Draskovic
research associate
Marko Draskovic is a research assistant at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. He is a specialist in Byzantine history and literature. Most of his research work is focused on the interpretation, analysis and interpretation of Byzantine sources. His research focus is on the examination of economy, economy, social and other vital historical structures in the early Byzantine period.
DENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Ksenija Zelic Mihajlovic
research associate
Ksenija Zelic Mihajlovic is a research associate at the School of Dental Medicine in Belgrade (STOMF). She is a specialist of Periodontology and Oral Medicine. Her main scientific research is focused on dental anthropology and forensic odontology with special interest in age estimation of individualsfrom archaeological and forensic context.
Aleska Janovic
research associate
Aleska Janovic is a research associate at the Department of Diagnostic Radiology, School of Dental Medicine in Belgrade (STOMF). He completed his bachelor and doctoral studies at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Belgrade. Aleksa works as a radiologist at the Department of Diagnostic Radiology (STOMF). He is dedicated to diagnosis and investigation of bone diseases in recent and archeological populations using advanced imaging and computer techniques.
Djurdja Bracanovic
teaching assistant at the Department of Diagnostic Radiology
Djurdja Bracanovic is a teaching assistant at the Department of Diagnostic Radiology, School of Dental Medicine in Belgrade (STOMF). She completed her bachelor and doctoral studies at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Belgrade. She works as a radiologist at the Department of Diagnostic Radiology (STOMF). She is a specialist in dento-maxillofacial and head and neck radiology, with a special interest in age and sex related bone morphological and microarchitectural changes.
ANCIENT DNA
Dusan Keckarevic
associate professor
Dusan Keckarevic is an associate professor employed at the Faculty of Biology in Belgrade since 2000. For years, he has been working on the education of students at all levels of study, within the Forensic Biology and Applied Genetics module. In addition to participating in teaching, since July 2017, he has been appointed as the head of the newly formed Centre for Forensic and Applied Molecular Genetics, practically the heir to the forensic part of the Centre for Human Molecular Genetics. From the very beginning of his professional engagement at the Centre, he has been involved in various activities of the Centre, primarily at the level of DNA analysis and molecular diagnosis of hereditary neurological and neuromuscular diseases, and then DNA analysis for the purpose of human identification and determination of kinship.
Maria Spirou
EC
Maria Spirou, EC, is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Her main scientific work is focused on investigating the evolution and history of infectious diseases and how epidemics/pandemics have affected and shaped human history in the past. In her previous work, she dealt with the isolation and examination of aDNA traces of pathogens from human osteological material, as well as the reconstruction and evolutionary analysis of entire ancient genomes of pathogens from different archaeological contexts. Her research focus is on the examination and monitoring of the plague pathogen, Yersinia Pestis from the late Neolithic, Bronze Age, as well as from the period of the first and second historical documented plague pandemics.
