Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls awarded prestigious Dan David Prize
Caroline Sturdy Colls, Professor of Holocaust Archaeology and Genocide Investigation, has received the Dan David Prize, the world’s largest history prize.
Professor Sturdy Colls has been recognized for the impact of her work in documenting genocide through not only archaeology but also history, digital humanities and the arts.
Her innovative work using non-invasive technology discovered evidence of gas chambers and mass graves in Poland at the site of the former Nazi-German death camp in Treblinka.
She leads a team at the University of Huddersfield’s Centre of Archaeology, which has investigated other Holocaust sites across Europe as well as Alderney in the Channel Islands.
Speaking about receiving the prize, Caroline said, “It is an honour to receive this incredible prize in recognition of my research and the ethical approaches that I have developed to investigate sites of mass violence. The funding will support my ongoing work in the fields of Holocaust and genocide studies, enabling my team and I to continue to document evidence of crimes around the world.”
Other projects are focusing on unearthing the site of a settlement that housed Jewish refugee children in the Lake District, investigating mass graves from the Holocaust in Ukraine, and the Herero and Nama genocide in Namibia.
The Centre is also collaborating closely with Holocaust Centre North, also based at the University of Huddersfield.
Caroline is one of nine winners who were recently presented with the 2025 Dan David Prize at a ceremony in Rome, and she receives $300,000 to support her research.
The Dan David Prize committee selected Caroline as a winner, “For developing practical and ethical protocols for conducting archaeological investigations at sites of genocide, for her enormous impact on the field of Holocaust Studies, and to support her ongoing contributions to the study of history and the human past.”
The Dan David Prize was first established in 2001 by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Dan David, to reward innovative and interdisciplinary work that contributed to humanity. In 2021, the Prize was relaunched with a focus on historical research, and rewards for early and mid-career scholars to help them fulfil their potential.