Professor Paul Haesaerts, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Belgium
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Paul Haesaerts joined the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in 1975 after gaining his Master's degree in Geology from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (1966) and his PhD in Sciences from the Free University of Brussel (1973). From 1985 – 2007 he was also External lecturer at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Quaternary Geology).
Since 1967, his research has been concentrated mostly on the loess deposits of the Eurasian Plain, focusing on palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of Palaeolithic sites. This approach is notably restsing on the study of paleosols and periglacial phenomena, completed by palaeobotanical analysis (anthracology and palynology); it furthers implies the defining of the chronostratigraphic context and the chronological frame of the loess sequences based on long series of radiocarbon dates.
Main fields of research: Upper and Middle Pleistocene loess sequences related to fluviatile deposits in Northern France (Somme Valley), Middle Belgium and Germany (Middle Rhine Area); Upper Pleistocene loess sequences with pluristratified Palaeolithic settlements of Austria (Willendorf and Grubgraben), Czech Republic (Dolni Vestonice), Northern Romania (Mitoc), Republic of Moldova (Cosautsi), Ukraine (Molodova and Mezherich), Central Russia (Kostienki) and Siberia (Kurtak, Afontova Gora and Malta); stratigraphy, palaeoecology and archaeology of the Plio-Pleistocene deposits of the Shungura Formation in South Ethiopia (1971-1982); loess sequences of China and Tadjikistan encompassing the last 2.6 MA (1990 - 1995).
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