Hugo Reyes-Centeno studies human evolution over the last million years, investigating the emergence of human anatomy as well as the mode and timing of modern human dispersals. Reyes-Centeno completed his doctorate at the Institute for Archaeological Sciences at the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment (Germany). Prior to being appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky, he was Scientific Coordinator of the Humanities Center for Advanced Studies “Words, Bones, Genes, Tools” at the University of Tübingen. He is currently Co-Principal Investigator of the Mid-Scale RI-1 External link, opens in new window. EduceLab External link, opens in new window., a next-generation infrastructure ecosystem for heritage science funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. He is also an investigator and steering committee member of the EU-funded Oceanic and Southeast Asian Navigators (OCSEAN External link, opens in new window.) project, uncovering the dispersal of Austronesian speakers into Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

As a Human Past Fellow at SCAS, Reyes-Centeno will conduct transdisciplinary research assessing how anatomical, genetic, linguistic, and archaeological lines of evidence inform current debates on the Austronesian expansion, harnessing original archaeological data collected from the Philippine archipelago. He was co-editor of three volumes published by Kerns Verlag (Tübingen): New Perspectives on the Peopling of the Americas (2018), Modern Human Origins and Dispersal (2019), and Ancient Connections in Eurasia (2021). His work has appeared in a range of journals, including PNAS, Cell, Journal of Human Evolution, Current Anthropology, and Heritage Science, among others. He has performed paleontological and archaeological fieldwork in France, Italy, Peru, the Philippines, and Spain.

Hugo Reyes-Centeno is in residence in the autumn of 2025.
This information is accurate as of the academic year 2025-26.