Research interests

Dr. Stelzer is a biological anthropologist specialised in palaeoanthropology. Her research has mainly focused on dental arcade shape variation in humans and their fossil and living relatives.

Her postdoctoral project at the Karl Landsteiner University focuses on the digitisation and virtual reconstruction of the Upper Palaeolithic twin burial from Krems-Wachtberg. 

Career & Education

• Since 2018

Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Biomechanics, Karl Landsteiner University Krems, Austria

Project title: “Digitising and reconstructing an Upper Palaeolithic infant twin burial from Krems-Wachtberg” (since 2023)
Funded by the GFF as part of the RTI Strategy Lower Austria 2027

Project title: "Digitisation as a chance for restoration and visualisation - A pilot study on the 30,000-year-old double burial of newborns from Krems-Wachtberg" 
Funded by the GFF formerly NFB (2018-2022)

• 2018        

Doctoral Degree (Dr. rer. nat) in Biology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology and University of Leipzig, Germany
Thesis title: "Dental Arcade Shape Variation in Hominin Evolution"

• 2011        

Master’s Degree (Mag. rer. nat.) in Anthropology at the Department of Anthropology,
University of Vienna, Austria
Thesis title: "Occlusal Fingerprint Analysis in Australopithecus afarensis Molars and its Implication for Dietary Interpretation"

Fieldwork

• 2015–2017: Sel’ungur, Kyrgyzstan
  led by the Novosibirsk State University and the University of Toronto
• 2010–2011: Grub-Kranawetberg, Austria
  led by the Natural History Museum Vienna
• 2007–2011: Willendorf II, Austria
  led by the University of Vienna and the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology
• 2009: Galili, Ethiopia
  led by the University of Vienna
• 2008: Les Cottés, France
  led by the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology
• 2008: Wartmannstetten, Austria
  led by the University of Vienna                 

Teaching

• 2011–2021: Practical course at the University of Vienna
  Comparative morphology of fossil hominids
• 2014–2018: Guest lecturer at the University of Leipzig
  Overview of the fossil and archaeological record as part of the Master’s course "Molecular Anthropology"
• 2011: Practical course at the University of Vienna
  Surface scanning and three-dimensional visualizations
• 2010: Teaching assistance practical course at the University of Vienna
  Surface scanning and three-dimensional visualizations