Elen Feuerriegel is an Australian palaeoanthropologist, known for being one of the "underground astronauts" of the Rising Star Expedition. She is a researcher at the University of Washington. Feuerriegel studied anthropology at the University of Queensland (BA, 2011) and the Australian National University (M. Biol. Anth, 2012). She then embarked on a PhD at ANU, under the supervision of Colin Groves, which she completed in 2017. Her thesis was on the biomechanics of the hominoid shoulder and its role in tool-making (flint knapping), and included research on Homo naledi fossils from Rising Star Cave.