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Lucy and the Taung Child: A Century of Science
September 14 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am PDT
A century ago, a small skull discovered at a South African quarry challenged what we thought we knew about human origins. Fifty years later, the discovery of Lucy in Ethiopia further transformed our understanding of how we became human.
Join experts from Ethiopia, South Africa, and North America for a free online event that examines a hundred years of challenges and progress in paleoanthropology.
The speakers will explore the historical context and lasting significance of the Lucy and Taung Child discoveries. They will discuss what these fossils meant at the time and how they impacted the African scientific community. Looking to the future, they will address the vital need for funding African scholars and strengthening African scientific collaboration.
This program is presented in partnership with the Institute of Human Origins (IHO) and the Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST). It is made possible by generous support from Camilla and George Smith, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund.
Register for free
Moderator and speaker bios
Program Moderator
Dr. Lauren Schroeder is a paleoanthropologist who studies how hominin skulls and jaws have changed and evolved over time. She is an associate professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga.
Dr. Shroeder is a Leakey Foundation grantee and Baldwin Fellow from South Africa who earned her PhD at the University of Cape Town. She has been involved in both the Malapa (Australopithecus sediba) and Rising Star (Homo naledi) projects as part of the research team studying the fossil hominin discoveries from these sites. Her current research includes collaborative projects on the evolution, integration, and variability of the primate skeleton.
Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie is Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Director of the Institute of Human Origins at ASU. He is a multiple-time Leakey Foundation grantee who has made numerous important fossil discoveries, including the “cranium of a 3.8-million-year-old Australopithecus anamensis. Dr. Haile-Selassie leads an international multidisciplinary team that conducts fieldwork in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, 30 miles north of Hadar, where the Lucy fossil was discovered. His research interest is understanding the paleobiology and paleoecology of early human ancestors based on the fossil record.
Dr. Dipuo Kgotleng is Director of the Palaeo-Research Institute at the University of Johannesburg, which she helped establish. Dr. Kgotleng has vast experience in South Africa’s heritage policy development and management. When Taung Skull World Heritage Site and Vredefort Dome World Heritage were inscribed into the World Heritage Register in 2005, she was appointed as the first archaeologist for both sites. She was the lead project manager for the establishment of South Africa’s Strategy for the Palaeosciences which is the blueprint for for the management of the discipline in South Africa. She is also a champion for the transformation of the palaeosciences and was one of the first people to call for a transformation charter in archaeology in South Africa.
Dr. Denise Su is an associate professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and research associate in the Institute of Human Origins. She joins ASU from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History where she was chief academic engagement officer and curator, integrating research with public outreach and education and leading initiatives to increase access to and diversify participation in science. Her research focuses on the paleoecology of early hominins and explores environments in which our early ancestors lived in order to provide insight into how environmental factors shaped the trajectory of hominin evolution.
Dr. Mirriam Tawane is a core business executive for the National Heritage Council of South Africa. She is a paleoanthropologist who earned her PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Dr. Tawane served as curator of Plio-Pleistocene paleontology at the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History. She has been involved in science outreach for the past ten years, participating in projects to teach learners and the general community about their heritage with respect to paleosciences, including Heritage Day celebrations at Taung, where the famous Taung Child was found.
