Femke Reidsma to Harvard with Rubicon Grant for research on early fire use
Researcher Femke Reidsma has been awarded a prestigious Rubicon grant. With this fellowship, she will spend two years conducting research at Harvard University, where she will join a leading paleoecology laboratory.
New environment
Reidsma’s research focuses on the role of fire in the evolution of hominins and the relationship between fire use, vegetation, and climate. She looks forward to continuing her work in a new setting. 'I had long hoped to collaborate with this paleoecology lab', she says. 'I was in touch with them while finishing my PhD, back when they were still at Columbia University. We stayed in contact, and when I was ready to write a proposal, they had just moved to Harvard.'
Evolution of fire use
Using biomarkers—molecules preserved in sediments—Reidsma will investigate how the relationship between hominins, their environment, and fire developed over time. She will examine both natural fire in the landscape and fire use by hominins.
'The great thing is that I can finally apply chemical techniques to archaeological material', she explains. 'During my PhD, I worked a lot on method development and modern reference material. Now I can further develop my toolkit in direct relation to archaeological questions.'
Her work includes studying how different types of fire biomarkers relate to one another, how they can be linked to vegetation signals, and how isotope analysis can provide insights into climate and precipitation. By combining these data with archaeological evidence, a richer picture of past fire use emerges.
Case-studies
The Rubicon grant enables Reidsma to investigate three archaeological sites: one in southern France and two in Germany. One of these sites is Neumark–Nord, near Leipzig. Previous research from Leiden has shown that Neanderthals burned parts of the landscape there. 'For me, this is a perfect test case', Reidsma explains. Can biomarkers confirm intentional landscape burning, even at sites where the evidence is not as strong as at Neumark?'
Archaeological questions
The chemical methods Reidsma will use come from paleoecology, where they are applied to reconstruct wildfires and climate change. 'It’s great that the methodology already exists', she says. 'I don’t have to develop it entirely myself, although the application is new. I will learn and apply biomarker analysis to answer archaeological questions. It’s incredibly valuable to gain that knowledge and expertise at Harvard.'
Enthousiasm
When she learned in December 2025 that her Rubicon proposal had been approved, she was deeply moved. 'I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone yet, but I was so excited and relieved', she recalls. 'You don’t receive a grant like this easily. I spent a year developing this proposal, so you hope the committee is just as enthusiastic about the project as you are.'
Looking ahead
With this project, Reidsma aims to lay a solid foundation for her future research line. 'I want to build a broader framework for studying the relationship between early hominins, fire, and their environment. So far, I’ve mainly focused on Europe, but Africa would be incredibly interesting in the long term. If this goes well, I hope to build on it with a Veni or ERC application.'
Over the next two years, she will work at Harvard’s Uno Terrestrial Paleoecology Lab.