My researches are focused on the reconstruction of ancient climates and environments in three connecting geographical areas: 1) the Mediterranean including the Eastern Mediterranean, 2) the Middle East including Iran, Turkey, 3) and Central Asia.
The period of time covered runs from the Present (for climatic and biological analogues) to the last 5 Ma.
I am focusing my research on the SO of Turkey where we have long sedimentary records associated with the presence of the most ancient hominins of Turkey (Acigol Lake, Denizli travertines) or the most famous Turkish archaeological site (Catal Huhuk). Thanks to our Turkish geologist colleagues, the international consortium ACIGOL can work on the long record of Acigol (more than 1 km of cores) and Catal Huyuk (500 m of cores). The ACIGOL research programs (funded by the ECCOREV Research Federation) and BILAT (financed by the OT-Med labex) allow us to begin the first interdisciplinary research in this region.
I have also obtained fundings from the ANR MRSEI to set up an international network in order to submit in 2019 to the ERC (Adv and SYNERGY) a research project focused on the relation Hominines vs. environment in Eurasia.