Sarah Parcak

Sarah attended Yale University for her BA, and received her M.Phil and PhD degrees from Cambridge University in the UK in 2005. She lectured at the University of Wales-Swansea before starting work in the Deptartment of Anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2006, where she is now a full Professor.

Sarah is the author of Satellite Remote Sensing For Archaeology (Routledge 2009) and Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past (Henry Holt 2019), which won the Phi Beta Kappa 2020 Book Award for Science, as well as many peer-reviewed academic papers. She is a National Geographic Society Explorer, a Young Global Leader, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a TED Senior Fellow, winner of the 2016 TED Prize, 2016 recipient of the Smithsonian Institute American Ingenuity Award, a 2018 recipient of the Explorer’s Club Lowell Thomas Award, and a 2020 recipient of the Roy Chapman Andrews Society Distinguished Explorer’s Award.

Sarah serves as the Founder and President of Globalxplorer, a non-profit dedicated to using cutting edge technologies to protect and preserve cultural heritage. She co-directs the Joint Lisht Mission with Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities, which focuses on the excavation and survey of Egypt’s Middle Kingdom capital. Her research has been featured in multiple BBC-Discovery Channel and PBS-Nova documentaries.

Sarah collaborates with her husband, Dr. Greg Mumford, on multiple archaeology projects, when they are not busy chasing after their 11-year-old son Gabriel, who already knows more about ancient Egypt than they do. Her hobbies include birdwatching, golf, and baking.