User:DrPaleo/sandbox

Zenobia Jacobs is a geochronologist and an ARC Future Fellow and professor in the Centre for Archaeological Science and the School of Earth of Environmental Sciences at the University of Wollongong. She is also a chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH).

Jacobs has played a key role in pioneering technical developments in the dating of single grains of sand buried at geological and archaeological sites. These dates provide clues to the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens and their interactions with other human groups around the world.

Early life and education
Jacobs received her B.A. in Archaeology and Geography from the University of Stellenbosch in 1998 and a PhD from University of Aberystwyth in 2004.

Career and impact
In 2006, Jacobs joined the University of Wollongong to undertake a research fellowship and is now a highly-cited researcher

Jacobs work has resulted in major advances towards understanding the evolutionary history of humans. She uses optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating on single-grains of sand to create a finely-resolved timeline for pivotal events in human evolution and Earth history.

Her work on ancient Denisovans, an extinct lineage of humans most closely related to Neanderthals has been published in high-impact journals, such as Science and Nature. These studies established a timeline of when the two groups of archaic humans (hominins) were present in southern Siberia and the environmental conditions they faced before going extinct.

Jacobs' research has also contributed to reconstructions of past environments in Africa, the use of ancient high sea-levels as analogues for future trends, and studies of the ecological footprint of the first humans to reach Australia and Madagascar.

Awards and honors

 * Most promising young researcher award, conferred by Environmentek, Council for Science and Industrial Research, South Africa, 2004
 * Vice Chancellor's Research Excellence Award for Emerging Researchers, conferred by Vice Chancellor University of Wollongong, 2008
 * L'Oreal Australia For Women in Science Fellowship, 2009
 * Sir Nick Shackleton medal, conferred by INQUA, 2009
 * ARC QEII fellowship, 2010 - 2014
 * Scopus (Australia) Young Researcher Award, 2013
 * Thomsen-Reuters Highly Cited Researcher, 2014 - 2016
 * Thomsen-Reuters (Australia) Citation Award (Arts and Humanities), 2015
 * Highly Cited Researcher, conferred by Clarivate, 2017 - 2018
 * ARC Future Fellowship, 2016 - 2020