Mladen Popovic

Prof. Mladen Popović is Dean of the Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society at the University of Groningen and Full Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism. His research focuses on the Dead Sea Scrolls, digital palaeography, and ancient Jewish studies. He holds academic appointments including Director of the Qumran Institute and memberships in the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW).

Education: M.A./Ph.D. from University of Groningen, with studies at KU Leuven and Yale University. Conducted archaeological fieldwork at Megiddo and Jerusalem. Notable projects include the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition at the Drents Museum (2013-2014) and ERC-funded research on digital palaeography.

Research interests span ancient scribal culture, AI applications in manuscript analysis, and Graeco-Roman Judaism. Awards include the Keetje Hodshon Prize and ERC Starting Grant (€1.5M) for developing AI-based methods to identify Dead Sea Scrolls scribes. Collaborations involve interdisciplinary teams in archaeometry and artificial intelligence.