Genevieve von Petzinger

As a Master's student in UVic's Department of Anthropology, von Petzinger cracked a startling symbolic code carved on prehistoric cave walls. She has compiled a database of 5,000 geometric shapes, lines and squiggles from 146 Ice Age caves in France and garnered global attention. In 2011, von Petzinger was named a TEDGlobal Fellow.

A BA in anthropology was the perfect foundation for my career of choice—to be an archaeologist! I found the program at UVic to be very well-rounded and enjoyed taking classes in all of the different sub-fields - having a background that includes socio-cultural and biological anthropology as well as archaeology has been very useful when it comes to my research about the people who lived over 10,000 years ago in Europe and the mysterious paintings they left behind at sites across the continent.