Prof Ackermann's research focuses on understanding the underlying evolutionary processes driving morphological diversification in human evolution; in other words, how we have come to look the way we do. In this talk she will discuss three research projects she is currently involved in, and what they are saying about how and why the evolution of our genus Homo occurred: (1) The role of random versus adaptive evolutionary processes in shaping diversity across Homo, (2) The morphology and phylogenetic position of Homo naledi within Homo, (3) The complex reticulating origins of our species, Homo sapiens.