from Professor Maria Kaczmarek
School Leader

At the beginning…


Course in Biostatistics


"Family" photo during city tour


Finis coronat opus…

The 20th Congress of the European Anthropological Association was held in Zagreb, Croatia, from August 24th to August 28th, 2016. The congress was opened by dr. Sasa Missoni, the director of the Institute for Anthropological Research and the President of the Congress, Professor Pavao Rudan, General Secretary of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Honourable President of the Congress, Professor Zvonko Kusic, President of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Professor Nicholas Mascie Taylor, President of the European Anthropological Association, and Professor Zeljko Reiner, President of the Croatian Parliament and delegates were also welcomed on behalf of the University. It was particularly important that our 20th anniversary congress was organized in Zagreb, since the foundation of the European Anthropological Association was declared in this city in 1976 and the 1st EAA Congress (1977) was also held in Zagreb. The EAA Council and Board awarded Prof. Pavao Rudan, the former director of the Croatian Institute for Anthropological Research, the General Secretary of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Honorary Membership of the Association to acknowledge his remarkable role and activity in the life of the EAA (inter alia he is one of the founder fathers of the EAA, he was one of the EAA presidents, vice-presidents and secretaries and EAA congress organizers).

The 20th EAA Congress was organized by the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb under the leadership of Prof. Sasa Missoni. Altogether 169 participants, (including 37 students), presented the results of their latest research at the congress. The participants came from 26 countries, mostly from Europe, but a number of participants came from non-European countries as well. The oral and poster presentations were grouped into the following sections: Anthropological Archaeology, Applied Anthropology, Growth and Development, Human Diversity, Miscellaneous, Human Evolution, Humans and Environment, Molecular Anthropology, Physiological Anthropology sections. The plenary lectures of the congress were given by the following well-known professors:
• Prof. Noel Cameron (Loughborough, UK): Cultural cues for research priorities in anthropology.
• Prof. Igor Rudan (Edinburgh, UK): Measuring ideas: The CHNRI method.
• Prof. Struan Grant (Struan Grant, PA, USA): GWAS only finds signals; 3D genomics finds the genes.
• Prof. Gordan Lauc (Zagreb, Croatia): Age-related changes in the IgG glycome: Biomarkers or drivers of health deterioration.
• Prof. Svante Paabo (Leipzig, Germany): Of Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern humans.
• Prof. Damir Marjanovic (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina): Challenges in the molecular-genetics identification of the human remains.
• Prof. Hermanussen Michael (Altenhof, Germany): As tall as my peers - the community effect on height.

The EAA Council awarded the best student oral and poster presentations. The pre-congress student award for oral presentation was given to Ms Violeta Bartuskiene (Vilnius, Lithuania), while the best student awards were awarded to Ms Veronika Kovacova (Brno, Czech Republic), Ms Sanni Oversti (Helsinki, Finnland) and Ms Sara Varano (Rome, Italy).

The new EAA Council (2016-2018) held its first meeting during the congress as well. The new EAA Board (2016-2018) was elected before the congress by the members of the new Council, and the EAA Board also held its first meeting before the General Assembly of the Association. Both, the list of Council and Board members can be seen at http://eaa.elte.hu/administration_council.html, http://eaa.elte.hu/administration_board.html. The General Assembly of the Association discussed and accepted the corrections of the EAA regulations suggested by the EAA Board and Council, i.e. changes to membership fees, the dates of EAA Council and Board elections, the procedures by which the EAA Council and Board will be elected from 2018.

The most important information on the next EAA Congress (Odense, Denmark, 22-25 August, 2018) was introduced by Prof. Jesper Boldsen during the EAA meetings. It was notified that the 2020 congress will held in Vilnius. Lithuania under the auspices of Prof. Janina Tutkuviene. The Summer school (Poznan, Poland, July, 2017, topic: Human growth and nutrition and their applications to health; applied statistical analyses) was also announced during the General Assembly by Prof. Maria Kaczmarek.

From the very beginning, the Zagreb meeting was able to provide us with a very pleasant and congenial atmosphere. In such an excellent atmosphere both the scientific and social activities were very effective and fruitful for all of us.
We would like to extend our profound gratitude to all those involved in organizing the 20th EAA Congress in Zagreb!

from Annamaria Zsakai

The 19th Congress of the European Anthropological Association was held in Moscow between the 26th and 29th of August, 2014. The President of the Local Organizing Committee, Professor Elena Godina and her team made very great efforts to provide perfect conditions for this international meeting, to bring together leading academics, research scientists as well as graduate and postgraduate students from around the world from many subfields of physical anthropology. The Congress gathered over 200 participants from over 20 countries and attracted over 180 paper submissions.

The plenary lectures, the scientific sections of oral and poster presentations gathered around the theme of the Congress (that is also the official motto of the European Union): "Unity in diversity". Several prominent keynote speakers of the main fields of physical anthropology were in attendance, including:
Prof. Igor Ovchinnikov (Grand Forks, USA): Mitochondrial pseudogenes, gene flow among African hominins, and Homo heidelbergensis;
Prof. Alexander Kozintsev (St. Petersburg, Russia): Craniometry of the Bronze Age steppe populations of southern Russia and Ukraine;
Prof. Barry Bogin (Loughborough, Great Britain): Humans are not cooperative breeders but practice biocultural reproduction;
Prof. Gregory Livshits (Tel Aviv, Israel): Genetics, genomics and metabolomics of human body composition;
Prof. Nicholas Mascie-Taylor (Cambridge, Great Britain): Epidemiological and Nutrition transition: the double burden of malnutrition;
Prof. Michael Hermanussen (Aschauhof, Germany): Global growth charts: new concepts of generating national and regional references for height, weight, and BMI from 0-18 years.

The congress covered a wide range of topics, the researchers could present their newest results in the following scientific sections: "Molecular anthropology - New Advances", "Physiological Anthropology", "Human Diversity", "Humans and Environment", "Human evolution", Applied Anthropology", "Growth and Development", Ageing and Senescence".
The Council of the European Anthropological Association was formed before the Congress in August 2014, and had a meeting during the Congress (report on the Council meeting). At the closing session of the Congress, at the General Assembly of the Association (report on the General Assembly) the new President, Prof. Nicholas Mascie-Taylor and the new Board of the EAA were announced.

The Awards of the Best Students Poster Presentation were also announced at the closing ceremony. The winners of the Awards were:
• Ozdemir Aysegul from Ankara University, Turkey (Evaluation of Arm Anthropometry and nutrition in Turkish Preschool children);
• Maria Eugenia Ibanez from University of the Basque Country, Spain (Body image satisfaction in relation to body composition in a young population from the Basque Country, Spain);
• Annamaria Posa from Szeged University, Hungary (Molecular and morphological case of Pott's disease from the Arpadian-Era). Congratulations to all of them!

As a closing event a symbolic baton was handed to the Croatian team (from Institute of Anthropological Research), because the next EAA Congress will be held in Zagreb in 2016.

We found the congress to be very informative and beneficial, and to our great pleasure there were ample opportunities to network during the meal breaks and social events during the Congress. The 19th EAA Congress also created an opportunity for us, the guests of Moscow, to experience the rich culture and history of the city.

We would like to extend a heart-felt thank to all members of the Organizing Committee, especially to Prof. Elena Godina for their enormous work. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to them for organizing such a successful event of the European Anthropological Association.

from Annamaria Zsakai

The last, 18th Congress of European Anthropological Association was held in Ankara (Turkey) from September 3d to 6th, 2012. It was arranged with the support of the Ankara University, and the president of the Congress was the University Vice-rector and Professor of Anthropology Department Erksin Gülec, one of the leading Turkish anthropologists, well-know for her palaeoanthropological research. Among other members of the National Organizing Committee were Drs. Basak Koca Özer, Ismail Özer and Mehmet Sagir, also from Ankara university staff.

In accordance with the main subject of the Congress - "Human Evolution and Dispersals", three out of five plenary lectures were dealing with different aspects of human evolution. Prof. David W. Frayer (Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, USA) talked about the emergence of language in Prehistoric Europe with the special emphasis on Neanderthals speech. New methods in paleoepidemiological reconstructions of health in past communities were the subject of the talk by Prof. Jesper Lier Boldsen (Department of Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark). Prof. Jean-Jacques Hublin from the Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany, has lectured on the first modern peopling of Western Eurasia, including such recent and disputable findings from the area, as the one from Denisov cave.

In two other plenary lectures the speakers somehow reconsidered their life-time careers in the light of new methods and visions. Prof. Doug Ubelaker (Smithsonian Institution Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, USA) "revisited" his former forensic case studies with new contemporary perspectives. Prof. Nicholas Mascie-Taylor (Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Great Britain), the former EAA president (2008-2012), in his lecture "From Genes to Latrines" talked about the developments of his studies from population genetics to different aspects of medical anthropology.

Apart from the plenary lectures, the scientific program of the Congress included several sessions with oral presentations (called "Free Communications") dealing with traditional anthropological subjects: "Human Evolution and Dispersals", "Human Health (palaeopathology)", "Human Skeletal Biology", "Human Genetics" , "Human Biology"? "Public Health, Determinants, Measurements and Trends", "Growth, Maturation and Aging", "Nutrition and Global Trends". Two sessions were dedicated to more diverse anthropological issues: to ethical and cultural aspects of anthropological research and to zooarcheological studies reflecting subsistence strategies of ancient populations.

There were also two poster sessions (111 posters displayed) more or less structured along the lines of the above mentioned topics.

About 120 participants from 34 countries attended the Ankara Congress. They were not only from Europe but also from Africa, Asia and both Americas. The most numerous delegations were from the hosting country (Turkey) - 27, Russia (25) and Poland (16), followed by Iraq (9), Czech Republic (8) and Japan (8).

At the closing session of the meeting a new President (Dr. Esther Rebato, Spain) and a new board of the EAA were announced, students prizes for the best oral presentation and the best poster were given, honorary EAA memberships were presented to Profs. Eva Bodzsar (Hungary) and Roland Hauspie (Belgium) for their long-standing achievements in EAA affairs. Finally a symbolic baton was handed to the Russian EAA members because Moscow was chosen as the host for the next EAA-2014 Congress.

The quality of the scientific program of the Ankara Congress was excellent but social and cultural events were equally good. The hosts were entertaining their guests with tours around the capital of Turkey, arranged wonderful cocktail and dinner receptions and took those who wanted to the post-congress tour to the Cappadocia fantastic area.

We are very grateful to the organizers for this very friendly and warm international event and we are looking forward to meet everybody in Moscow, Russia, for the 19th Congress of the EAA in 2014.

Acknowledgement: The author is grateful to Dr. Basak Koca Özer for the information about the Congress individual and countries participation.

from Prof. Elena Godina

Professor Erksin Gülec, the President of the Organizing Committee (the Opening Ceremony)

ICEPT 2 - TUBERCULOSIS EVOLUTION Meeting
held within the conference series celebrating the
75th Anniversary of Albert Szent-Györgyi's Nobel Prize
University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
22-25 March, 2012

The year 2012 is an exceptional anniversary in the life of Szeged and its university. Former rector and professor of the university, Albert Szent-Györgyi published his discovery in 1932 that won him Nobel Prize 75 years ago in 1937. The University of Szeged celebrated this anniversary with a large scale series of events between the 22nd and 25th of March, 2012.

Plenary lectures of 9 Nobel Prize laureates (Medicine and Physiology: Andrew W. Schally (1977), Bert Sakmann (1991), Eric Wieschaus (1995), Peter C. Doherty (1996), Tim Hunt (2001); Chemistry: Ada E. Yonath (2009), Aaron Ciechanover (2004), John E. Walker (1997), Robert Huber (1988)) and other leading specialists made prominent contributions to the main scientific program in the Congress Center of the university. The program later continued with 6 parallel scientific conferences (cardiology, gastroenterology, immunology, molecular biology, genetics and tuberculosis) in 3 venues. Altogether 1429 participants from 32 countries registered to the conference series.

The Tuberculosis Evolution Meeting titled "ICEPT2 - The Past & Present of Tuberculosis: a multidisciplinary overview on the origin and evolution of TB" joined the conference series in French and Hungarian co-organization. Main organizers of the meeting, György Pálfi (Szeged) and Olivier Dutour (Paris/Bordeaux) launched a series of interdisciplinary conferences on the paleopathology and evolution of infectious diseases in the early 90's. Within the framework of this initiative the predecessor of TB Evolution Meeting titled "ICEPT - International Congress on the Evolution and Palaeoepidemiology of Tuberculosis" was organized in Hungary (Budapest-Szeged) in 1997.

The international organizing committee of "ICEPT2" included acclaimed researchers of the topic from Hungary and abroad (Olivier Dutour - Paris/Bordeaux, György Pálfi - Szeged, András Palkó - Szeged, Pascale Perrin - Montpellier, Christophe Sola - Paris, Attila Somfay - Szeged and Albert Zink - Bolzano). Their work was supported by the local organizing committee (Zsolt Bereczki - Szeged, Hajnalka Dürgõ - Szeged, Muriel Masson - Edinburgh/Szeged, Erika Molnár - Szeged, László Paja - Szeged, György Pálfi - Szeged, Ildikó Pap - Budapest, Zoltán Pintér- Szeged, Annamária Pósa - Szeged, Ágnes Mira Szabó - Szeged, Renee Willmon - London, Ontario/ Bordeaux).

The meeting was opened in Hotel Tisza in the afternoon of the 23rd of March in Szeged. 102 scholars from 4 continents participated the event. The program of the opening day of the conference contained two highly interdisciplinary sessions where researchers of molecular genetics, microbiology, paleomicrobiology and paleopathology shared their knowledge on the evolution of TB and its pathogens. Results of the search for mycobacterial DNA remains in the oldest known TB case (9000 BP, Mark Spigelman), TB evolution hypotheses based on investigations of mummies and skeletal remains (Albert Zink) and modern genetical theories of the formation of TB bacteria (Roland Brosch) were presented among many other topics.

The ICEPT2 dedicated two special sessions to the World TB Day on the 24th March. In his opening plenary lecture Stewart T. Cole, the world-renowned researcher of TB bacteria spoke about the history of Mycobacterium studies and its future perspectives. In the plenary lecture Zsuzsanna Jakab, Director of the World Health Organization's Regional Office for Europe introduced the audience to the possibilities to fight drug resistant strains of bacteria on the international level. Helen Donoghue analyzed evolutionary questions of TB and leprosy in the light of the achievements of paleomicrobiology.

The last day of the international conference on TB evolution started and finished with special paleopathology sessions, putting the sessions of modern genetics and diagnostics in a frame on in the program. Several extraordinary findings from Hungary were presented on this day, including the prominently high prevalence of TB infection in the Vác mummy collection (Ildikó Pap) and symptoms of mycobacterial infection on Neolithic and Neanderthal (at least 30 000 years BP) human remains (György Pálfi).

In the session for mycobacterium evolution Prof. Roland Brosch, leading investigator at the Pasteur Institute Paris, one of the most outstanding researchers in the evolutionary genetics of TB presented the newest results concerning the evolution of TB bacteria.

Among many other talks in the afternoon David Minnikin professor of chemistry from Great Britain introduced new chemical identification methods for remains of several millennia old TB bacteria, and Prof. Olivier Dutour from Bordeaux gave a lecture on possible applications the state-of-the-art medical imaging techniques and 3D reconstruction methods in paleopathology. The meeting was closed with a special paleoepidemiological talk from Joël Blondiaux who spoke about the impact of TB on human populations and questions of survival.

Beside the rich scientific program, the conference series offered several cultural events as well. After the sessions quality social programs entertained the participants including a folk music and dance show and organ and piano concerts of famous Hungarian musicians. The program of this grandiose event of importance in the history of science was closed by a gala dinner.

from Dr Erika Molnar and Dr Zsolt Bereczki

Olivier Dutour and György Pálfi - main organizers of the ICEPT2 meeting

Participants of the ICEPT2 meeting