Hallett Nature
Top Science Journal Publishes Hallett's Research
Hallett is an archaeologist focused on prehistoric human ecology
Emily Hallett, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Anthropology, had two major research papers published in Nature, the world’s leading multidisciplinary science journal, during the 2025 calendar year.
“Having two papers published in Nature in one year is an extraordinary accomplishment,” said Peter J. Schraeder, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “The impact of her scholarly work is a testament to the power of curiosity-driven research.”
Hallett was the first-author on the paper “Major expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal,” which gained attention from leading outlets like the Associated Press. Her research delves into how early humans, originating from a small African population, successfully migrated to various climates and environments around 50,000 years ago.
Her study, which was co-authored by Jacopo Niccolò Cerasoni, a postdoctoral researcher in the College’s Department of Biology, explained how that population was able to successfully migrate to drastically different environments and climates outside of Africa around 50,000 years ago.
The early humans’ ability to migrate wasn’t due to a major advancement in technology or communication; it was due to their ability to adapt, honed by earlier migration to different habitat types throughout Africa, the study found.
“We found that humans have been successfully living in challenging habitats for at least 70,000 years, and that our ecological flexibility is part of what enabled our species to disperse across the globe and thrive in each habitat we encountered,” said Hallett.
“This study provides the clearest evidence yet that humans were capable of thriving in markedly different ecological zones well before their expansion beyond Africa,” said Cerasoni.
Read more in depth about how early humans were able to migrate out of Africa on Loyola Today.
Hallett also was an author on the paper, “Humans in Africa’s wet tropical forest 150 thousand years ago,” which offers the earliest known evidence of humans in tropical forest environments.
An archaeologist focused on prehistoric human ecology, Hallett studies animal remains to reconstruct past habitats and hunting patterns. Her recent fieldwork in Morocco and Italy examines Late Pleistocene human archaeological sites.
Learn more about Dr. Emily Hallett.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1870, the College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges, serving as the academic home for nearly 8,000 students (roughly 50 percent of Loyola’s total student population). It is academically diverse with twenty academic departments that span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. It is also highly interdisciplinary with thirty-one interdisciplinary programs and seven interdisciplinary centers, including the mission-centric Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. The College is home to over 450 full-time, award-winning faculty, who are committed to teaching and research excellence. They teach nearly 2,000 classes each semester, including 88 percent of all Core Curriculum classes taken by undergraduate students across the university. They also contribute to eleven doctoral programs whose graduates have helped propel Loyola starting in 2025 to R-1 research status (the highest research status a university can achieve). Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our John Felice Rome Center in Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever-deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”
Emily Hallett, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Anthropology, had two major research papers published in Nature, the world’s leading multidisciplinary science journal, during the 2025 calendar year.
“Having two papers published in Nature in one year is an extraordinary accomplishment,” said Peter J. Schraeder, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “The impact of her scholarly work is a testament to the power of curiosity-driven research.”
Hallett was the first-author on the paper “Major expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal,” which gained attention from leading outlets like the Associated Press. Her research delves into how early humans, originating from a small African population, successfully migrated to various climates and environments around 50,000 years ago.
Her study, which was co-authored by Jacopo Niccolò Cerasoni, a postdoctoral researcher in the College’s Department of Biology, explained how that population was able to successfully migrate to drastically different environments and climates outside of Africa around 50,000 years ago.
The early humans’ ability to migrate wasn’t due to a major advancement in technology or communication; it was due to their ability to adapt, honed by earlier migration to different habitat types throughout Africa, the study found.
“We found that humans have been successfully living in challenging habitats for at least 70,000 years, and that our ecological flexibility is part of what enabled our species to disperse across the globe and thrive in each habitat we encountered,” said Hallett.
“This study provides the clearest evidence yet that humans were capable of thriving in markedly different ecological zones well before their expansion beyond Africa,” said Cerasoni.
Read more in depth about how early humans were able to migrate out of Africa on Loyola Today.
Hallett also was an author on the paper, “Humans in Africa’s wet tropical forest 150 thousand years ago,” which offers the earliest known evidence of humans in tropical forest environments.
An archaeologist focused on prehistoric human ecology, Hallett studies animal remains to reconstruct past habitats and hunting patterns. Her recent fieldwork in Morocco and Italy examines Late Pleistocene human archaeological sites.
Learn more about Dr. Emily Hallett.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1870, the College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges, serving as the academic home for nearly 8,000 students (roughly 50 percent of Loyola’s total student population). It is academically diverse with twenty academic departments that span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. It is also highly interdisciplinary with thirty-one interdisciplinary programs and seven interdisciplinary centers, including the mission-centric Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. The College is home to over 450 full-time, award-winning faculty, who are committed to teaching and research excellence. They teach nearly 2,000 classes each semester, including 88 percent of all Core Curriculum classes taken by undergraduate students across the university. They also contribute to eleven doctoral programs whose graduates have helped propel Loyola starting in 2025 to R-1 research status (the highest research status a university can achieve). Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our John Felice Rome Center in Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever-deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”