UVic cave art scholar named TEDGlobal Fellow 2011

University of Victoria PhD candidate Genevieve von Petzinger is the only Canadian on the distinguished list of 20 new international fellows at the TEDGlobal Conference 2011 next month in Edinburgh, Scotland. Von Petzinger earned international media attention last year with her discovery of ancient geometric signs from the Ice Age. 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 her work has garnered global attention.

As a TEDGlobal Fellow, von Petzinger will share her recent research with an international audience at the TEDGlobal Conference, July 11 to 15. “I am delighted TEDGlobal chose me,” says von Petzinger. “It is a great honour.”

TED is a nonprofit organization started as a four-day conference 25 years ago. The annual TED Conference invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes and the TED Talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. For information about the fellowship program, visit: http://blog.ted.com/2011/06/07/announcing-the-2011-tedglobal-fellows/