Dr. Yoshi Maezumi (she|her|hers)

Dr. S. Yoshi Maezumi studied anthropology, archaeology, and religious studies at the University of California San Diego, before completing a Master of Arts in Analytical Archaeology at California State University Long Beach. She received her doctorate in Physical Geography from the University of Utah in 2015, where her research focused on reconstructing past fire regimes and human–environment interactions in tropical ecosystems using palaeoecological records. As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Exeter and later as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of Amsterdam, she developed interdisciplinary approaches integrating palaeoecology, archaeology, and palaeoclimate data to investigate long-term land use, fire dynamics, and ecosystem change across tropical forest and savanna ecotones.

Since 2022, she has led research on human–environment interactions and fire ecology at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, where she is now a permanent Senior Scientist in the Department of Coevolution of Land Use and Urbanisation. Her work focuses on understanding the ecological legacies of Indigenous land use and cultural burning, and how these long-term dynamics inform contemporary challenges in biodiversity conservation, fire management, and regenerative land use. She leads and contributes to major international research projects and collaborates across global research networks, addressing Anthropocene dynamics and Earth system change. 

Selected Publications

• Kraklow, V., Seitz, K., Robbins, Z.J., Benedict, K.B., Xu, C., Dickman, L.T., Maezumi, S.Y. (Accepted). Machine learning reveals charcoal-derived fire intensity and fuel composition to reconstruct past fire regimes. Fire Ecology.
• Giovas, C.M., Kraan, C.T., Lowe, K., Kappers, M., Victorina, A., Conlan, C., Maezumi, S.Y. (Accepted). Cultural landscapes reveal 5,700 years of human–environment interaction on Curaçao. Antiquity.
• Mauceri, A.A., Hutchings, J.A., Konecky, B.L., Maezumi, S.Y. (2026). Selective accelerated solvent extraction for the separation of sedimentary plant wax and fire biomarkers. Organic Geochemistry.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2026.105211
• Blinkhorn, J., Champion, L., Niang, K., Coutros, P., Kay, A., Candy, I., Maezumi, S.Y., Ordemann, M.R., Scerri, E.M.L. (2026). Westward expansion of pearl millet agriculture into the Lac de Guiers basin by c. 200 CE. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2026.2637384
• Alves, D.T., Hilbert, L., Maezumi, S.Y., Robinson, M., Gregório de Souza, J., Iriarte, J. (2025). Plant seasonalities and the regional organisation of the Tapajó society. Environmental Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2025.2553985 .  
• Roberts, P., Carleton, W.C., Los, S., Maezumi, S.Y. (2025). “Wildland urban interfaces” from an archaeological perspective. Journal of Urban Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JUA.5.150272 
• Kistler, L., de Oliveira Freitas, F., Gutaker, R., Maezumi, S.Y., Ramos-Madrigal, J., et al. (2025). Historic manioc genomes reveal the maintenance of diversity under long-term clonal cultivation. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq0018   
• Mauceri, A.A., Konecky, B.L., Hutchings, J.A., Gosling, W.D., Iriarte, J., Maezumi, S.Y. (2025). Mid to late Holocene hydroclimate and vegetation changes near the Amazon–Tapajós confluence. The Holocene. https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836251333325