Grants | The Leakey Foundation
We are pleased to announce the recipients of our fall 2021 Leakey Foundation Research Grants.
These 39 scientists embody our mission of increasing scientific knowledge and public understanding of human evolution, behavior, and survival.
Their diverse research projects span the globe and cover topics that range from primate ecology, cognition, and tool-use to morphology, genomics, and the excavation of newly discovered hominin fossil sites.
We look forward to sharing more about our grantees and their work as their projects progress.
2021 Grantee Project Locations
Fall 2021 Leakey Foundation Grant Recipients
Nalina Aiempichitkijkarn, University of California, Davis: Social network and tuberculosis transmission dynamics in long-tailed macaques
Hugues-Alexandre Blain, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social: Early hominin climate envelope: The lower vertebrate perspective
Steven Brandt, University of Florida: Geochronology and geomorphology of Late Pleistocene deposits at Mochena Borago, Ethiopia: Contextualizing human behavioral changes >50 ka
Averill Cantwell, University of Michigan: The evolution of cognitive and behavioral flexibility in chimpanzees
Xiaoheng Cheng, University of Chicago: Examining linked and polygenic selection in time-stratified human genome samples
Emily Coco, New York University: Stone tool recycling and use of surface deposits in Paleolithic Kazakhstan
Youssef Djellal, University of Algarve: Early Homo sapiens behavior in Morocco: Perspectives from artifact use wear and raw material sourcing
Sofya Dolotovskaya, University of Texas at Austin: Intrasexual competition and mate choice in pair-living titi and owl monkeys
Giuseppe Donati, Oxford Brookes University: Navigating night and day: Shifting activity patterns in primate evolution
Gene Estrada, University of Michigan: Identifying the ecological correlates of arboreal primate terrestriality
Luke Fannin, Dartmouth College: Differentiating and quantifying siliceous particulate matter in the diets of primates
Hannah Farrell, University of Chicago: An integrative approach to explore the functional morphology of the hominoid clavicle
Julien Favreau, McMaster University: Geochemical sourcing of Oldowan and Acheulean stone tools at Oldupai Gorge, Tanzania
Philip Glauberman, University of Tübingen: Early Pleistocene hominin occupation and behavior in the Armenian Highlands
Quentin Goffette, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences: Exploitation of birds by Paleolithic hunter-gatherers in Belgium: Chronocultural framework
David Gokhman, Weizmann Institute of Science: Mapping the DNA sequences that underlie human-chimpanzee gene expression differences
Abigail Hall, University of Minnesota: The ecological context of early ape evolution
Corey Johnson, University of California, Davis: Investigating patterns of Lower Paleolithic technological development at Nihewan Basin, China
Anubhav Preet Kaur, IISER Mohali: Understanding the human-animal-environment interface in the Pinjore Formation (2.6-0.7 million years) of the Chandigarh Siwalik Frontal Range of northern India
Austin Lawrence, University of Missouri: Effect of hip joint orientation and pelvic morphology on human locomotor biomechanics: Implications for interpreting locomotion in the hominin fossil record
Andrés Link, Fundación Proyecto Primates: Ecological and environmental factors influencing the behavior of owl monkeys
Laura Longo, University of Venice: Mill(e)-Stones: Ground stones and plant food processing during MIS 3 in the Caucasus
Abiodun Olowo, University of Ibadan: Morphology and genetics of facial variation among Nigerian ethnic groups
Alejandra Pascual-Garrido, Oxford University and Durham University: Archaeological signatures of plant-based chimpanzee tools: Implications for the origins of technology
Kathleen Paul, University of Arkansas: Genetic architecture of internal and external tooth configuration in non-human primates
Alaz Deniz Peker, MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution: Second Year Baldwin Support
Jeffrey Rogers, Baylor College of Medicine: Genomic analysis of Papio baboon diversity: A model of hominin differentiation
Gordon P. Getty Grant Laureate
Liran Samuni, Harvard University: Group specific tool-use behavior and tool-use flexibility in chimpanzees living in a savanna-mosaic environment at the Moyen-Bafing National Park, Guinea
Clara Scarry, California State University: Individual male participation in intergroup aggression by white-bellied spider monkeys
Francis H. Brown African Scholar
Kahsay Nugsse Tesfay, Baylor University: Paleomagnetic and magnetostratigraphic investigation of late Miocene – Pleistocene deposits from the Gona research area, Afar Depression, Ethiopia
Michaela Zewdu Tizazu: University of Florida, Second Year Baldwin Support
Kaia Tombak, City University of New York, Nutrient regulation in bonobos and western lowland gorillas: A physiological constraint or local adaptation?
Nikoloz Tsikaridze, Georgian National Museum: Investigations of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition at Bronze Cave, Tsutskhvati, Georgia
Tatiane Valença, University of São Paulo: Understanding the role of terrestriality and risk perception in tool use
Bas van Boekholt, University of Osnabruck: Turn-taking in social interactions of infant chimpanzees in the wild
Frido Welker, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen: A multi-enzyme reactor for palaeoproteomics
Erin Wessling, Harvard University and Daniel Green, Columbia University: Comparative and proximate chimpanzee oxygen isotope ecology as a model for hominin and paleoclimatic patterns
Roshna Wunderlich, James Madison University: System Ontogeny of locomotor mechanics and energetics in wild sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi)