Awards

Dr. Lasisi’s public outreach includes human variation, adaptation, and evolution, and she reaches a wide range of audiences. As described by her nomination, “Her work exemplifies many best practices for science communication and engagement– including clarity, empathy, and presenting science as a process of generating knowledge, rather than a set of facts. Her work is also distinctive in its embrace of emerging media platforms, to better connect with younger and more diverse audiences about science and its impacts on society.”

Watch her Leakey Foundation talk.

Dr. Ocobock’s research integrates human biology and anthropology, with a focus on the interaction between anatomy, physiology, evolution, and the environment. She explores the physiological and behavioral mechanisms necessary to cope with and adapt to extreme climate and physical activity. As described in her nomination, “Collectively, Dr. Ocobock’s activities promote scientific literacy in clear, relevant, and engaging ways, and support our field’s efforts to foster respect and understanding for the variation, adaptation, and evolution of human beings and their living and fossil relatives.”

Watch her on Lunch Break Science.

Dr. Hinde’s ability to generate interest in biological anthropology and related fields is remarkable, reflecting her expertise and breadth across numerous academic fields. Her nomination notes that “All of Dr. Hinde’s work in science communication is a master class in how to talk to the public about science in a way that is engaging, fun, informative, and transformative.”

Watch her Leakey Foundation talk for educators.

Dr. Briana Pobiner is a paleoanthropologist whose research centers on the evolution of the human diet, but has included topics as diverse as human cannibalism and chimpanzee carnivory. She has done fieldwork in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Indonesia, and has been supported in her research by the Fulbright-Hays program, The Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, Rutgers University, the Society for American Archaeology, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Since joining the Smithsonian in 2005 to help put together the Hall of Human Origins, in addition to continuing her active field, laboratory, and experimental research programs, she leads the Human Origins Program’s education and outreach efforts, which include managing the Human Origins Program’s public programs, website content, social media, and exhibition volunteer training. Briana has more recently developed a research program in evolution education and science communication and is also an Associate Research Professor of Anthropology in the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology at the George Washington University.

Watch her Leakey Foundation talk for educators.

Dr. Fuentes’ research centers on the question of what it means to be human, and he has made significant academic contributions to basic primatology as well as larger integrative questions focusing on creativity and community in human evolution, multispecies relationships, and engaging with race and racism. He is also an active public scientist. He has published a number of popular books, is an active blogger, an enthusiastic participant in public science events, and regularly appears in the broader media as an advocate for the significance of our discipline.

Watch his Leakey Foundation Darwin Day presentation.

Kay Behrensmeyer is a Research Curator and Senior Scientist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, where, for over four decades, she has investigated the interconnections between ecosystems, earth processes, and evolution across different time spans. She received a doctorate in geology and paleontology from Harvard in 1973. Soon afterward, she began her foundational research on taphonomy—the science of how the remains of living creatures are transformed into the fossil record. At Amboseli National Park, Kenya, Behrensmeyer systematically studied how carcasses get scattered, trampled, or buried, and how different bone sizes, varying soil conditions, and other environmental factors can affect the preservation of animal remains. Her research at Amboseli, which still continues today, has revealed how fossils can be faithful recorders of past life but are also potential sources of bias that affect scientific interpretation. Her work demonstrates, for example, that faunal evidence may be an inaccurate picture of the numbers of species actually present, a conclusion that has crucial implications for studying human evolution. 

Dr. Behrensmeyer’s Gordon P. Getty Award funding will allow her to assemble important taphonomic reference collections at both the Smithsonian and the National Museums of Kenya. These collections will help future researchers study taphonomy and will enhance the value of both museums’ collections while contributing to the understanding of human evolution.

Anatomist and paleoanthropologist Carol Ward of the University of Missouri is an expert in analyzing how the fossil bones of our early ancestors can give clues to their muscular anatomy and biomechanical capabilities. In 2010, Ward co-founded the West Turkana Paleo Project, an international fieldwork program organized with the National Museums of Kenya to search for ancestral human fossils and evidence of ancient environments. The WTPP’s long list of discoveries includes the earliest fossil bones of hominin hands essentially identical to our own, dating to 1.42 million years ago, at the site of Kaitio, Kenya. 

Reconstructing the anatomy and functioning of fossil hands and feet is a special focus of Ward’s current research. For this challenging task, her team is producing the first virtual 3D anatomical atlas of the hands and feet of a chimpanzee, gorilla, and modern human; the atlas will be a significant contribution to understanding the evolution of these distinctive extremities. As the most recent recipient of a Getty Award, Ward writes that it is “especially meaningful because my first grant was from The Leakey Foundation, so they effectively set me on the course that has gotten me here today. The same is true for the majority of my colleagues, which is a testament to the foundation and Mr. Getty’s role in making possible much of the research that has shaped our understanding of human evolution for over half a century.”

A postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, Liran Samuni’s research focuses on intergroup relationships and cultural behavior among chimpanzees and bonobos.  She is currently investigating an intriguing case of tool use by chimpanzees in Moyen-Bafing National Park in Guinea, West Africa, where they use long sticks to gather algae from streams by poking and twirling them in the water, like the action of a cotton candy vendor. Previously, Samuni spent four years observing bonobo behavior at the Kokolopri Bonobo Research Project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she discovered that two different groups had distinct cultural preferences for the choice of animals they hunted for meat, despite living close together in the forest. Understanding how chimpanzees and bonobos acquire such special behaviors offers, Samuni says, “an ideal context to explore the evolutionary pathway of human material culture.” The Leakey Foundation’s support has been essential for the long-term observations that are the foundation of her work. “It is a great honor to receive the award in Mr. Getty’s name, recognizing his significant contributions to our field,” Samuni says. “Working with wild apes to explore my research passions is a privilege. The award has opened up new avenues for me to advance as a scientist and to share my research with a wide audience.”

Throughout his influential career, Richard Kay has pursued a broad multidisciplinary path to studying the past. During the 1970s, Kay spent two years in a Harvard lab observing how monkeys crush, shear, and grind different types of food. Then he began an exhaustive microscopic study of how the tooth shapes of living primates reflect the kinds of foods they consume; his aim was to apply that knowledge to fossil teeth and reconstruct the diets of extinct species. The method Kay developed, paleobiologist Peter S. Ungar notes, “quickly became the standard for measuring teeth in paleontology laboratories the world over, and it’s still used widely today.” Across four decades, Kay has discovered many extinct South American primate species and his research has been fundamental to understanding the origins and evolution of primates. Without The Leakey Foundation to support his interdisciplinary approach, Kay says, “I am not sure that I could have done what I’ve done so far without their help. Their funds allowed me to explore and generate projects that applied information based on the study of living animals to reconstruct the behavior of extinct ones. Their funding has been critical, not just for me, but for the field as a whole.”

Yohannes Haile-Selassie is the director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. He is one of the foremost experts in paleoanthropology, known for major fossil discoveries in Ethiopia’s Rift Valley. At the Woranso-Mille site near Hadar, his team found remains of Australopithecus afarensis, Lucy’s species, co-existing with at least two other types of early hominins. In 2019, Haile-Selassie announced an even more dramatic discovery at Woranso-Mille—the nearly complete skull of yet another species, Australopithecus anamensis—significantly enriching our understanding of early hominin diversity in the Afar region. Haile-Selassie is a co-founder of the African Rift Valley Research Consortium, a far-reaching interdisciplinary project conducting large-scale research on fundamental questions of geology, ecology, and hominin evolution in a rift setting. “Receiving an award named after Gordon Getty,” he says, “made me think that hard work pays off. It made me feel that I can now see myself as exemplary to the next generation of African scholars who are being supported by The Leakey Foundation to thrive and succeed in their intellectual and professional pursuits.” 

For over 25 years, Susan Perry has led the Lomas Barbudal Monkey Project, revealing extraordinary cultural behaviors among Costa Rica’s capuchin monkeys. With sustained support from The Leakey Foundation, Perry’s research has corrected early misconceptions and explored the complex depths of capuchin social dynamics. For example, during her first two years of fieldwork, it looked as if all male juvenile and adult capuchins shared equal mating privileges. Then came a shock: genetic paternity evidence showed that a single alpha male fathered over 90% of the group’s offspring. Long-term observations have also been crucial for revealing behaviors that are passed down among different groups. The strangest of these are trance-like sessions in which pairs of capuchins lock one another in sometimes painful embraces, testing each other’s patience and trust; in one case, a monkey slips its finger between the eyelid and the eyeball of its partner for minutes at a time. “Often the most exciting discoveries emerge unexpectedly from long-term data collection,” Perry notes. “None of this would be possible without Gordon Getty’s tireless financial and intellectual support of The Leakey Foundation’s mission.”

Fredrick Manthi is a paleontologist and director of antiquities, sites, and monuments at the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi. Manthi’s interest in human origins was kindled as a child by the books on prehistory brought home by his father, who worked with Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge during the 1970s. Two Leakey Foundation Baldwin Fellowships enabled Manthi to earn his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He co-founded the West Turkana Paleo Project and has notably specialized in studying small rodent fossils, critical indicators of ancient environmental changes. In a landmark discovery in West Turkana in 2000, Manthi unearthed the braincase of a 1.55-million-year-old Homo erectus along with the jawbone of a later Homo habilis. These finds upended traditional theories by suggesting that the two species had co-existed for nearly half a million years, rather than evolving in a linear fashion. Support from The Leakey Foundation, he says, “helped shape my career as a paleontologist, and has enabled work that has made a significant contribution to understanding the evolutionary history of hominin and non-hominin species, and the environmental contexts in which this happened. Further, this support has motivated me to push for the training of more Africans in the paleosciences.”

Behavioral ecologist Margaret Crofoot employs cutting-edge remote sensing technology to study wild primates. Crofoot is particularly drawn to the question of how primates overcome individual conflicts of interest to make group decisions. At Kenya’s Mpala Research Center, her team outfitted 25 olive baboons with GPS collars and accelerometers to record the movements of each animal over a month. What she found was surprising. Despite baboons’ hierarchical, top-down social order, no single animal dictates where the baboon troop forages for food. Instead, the baboons tend to follow wherever the majority is headed, a strategy that may help safeguard them against predators like leopards. Crofoot has also investigated stone tool use by capuchin monkeys in Panama and is currently participating in ICARUS, an international project tracking animals from the ultimate observing platform: space. A satellite-based system, ICARUS picks up GPS signals from individual animals, allowing scientists to monitor wildlife movements over vast regions. Crofoot plans to use ICARUS to track the behavior of hundreds of animals in multiple baboon troops simultaneously.  

Clara Scarry specializes in long-term studies of the social behavior of primates in Ecuador, Argentina, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A bioanthropologist, Scarry’s fascination with primates started at age six when she discovered Jane Goodall’s book My Life With Chimpanzees; “I read it and I was set, it put me on my path.” she says. Today, Scarry’s research focuses on understanding the evolution of cooperation. To do this, she has established a long-term field study of capuchin monkeys in Argentina’s Parque Nacional Iguazú. Her research examines the connections between intergroup aggression, intragroup relationships, and individual decision-making. Her work offers valuable insights into the complex processes that underlie primate behavior.

Over five decades, geophysicist and geologist Thure Cerling has explored subjects as diverse as elephant conservation, the age of the Grand Canyon, and the evolution of monsoons. However, the heart of his work lies in understanding the environments of East Africa that were the setting for pivotal steps in human evolution. Cerling’s doctoral research analyzed the chemistry of modern Rift Valley lakes to help reconstruct the formation of ancient lakes. In the 1970s, he collaborated with geologist Frank Brown to establish a timeline for the volcanic rock and ash layers at Olduvai Gorge and the Turkana Basin, vital for establishing the age of the hominin fossils found there by the Leakeys. He later innovated the use of isotopes in tooth enamel to study past and present diets of humans and animals. “The questions we ask about human evolution prompt studies of modern ecology,” he says,  “and the answers we learn from modern ecology can then be used to answer the original question. The Leakey Foundation provides critical support for bridging the different disciplines of science to learn about human evolution.”

Sileshi Semaw has dedicated nearly three decades to investigating stone toolmaking sites in the rugged badlands of Gona near Hadar, Ethiopia. Dating to 2.6 million years ago, some of the stone tool finds from Gona are associated with animal bones bearing cut marks, among the earliest evidence for processing meat. The Gona researchers, co-directed by Sileshi Semaw and Michael Rogers, concluded that the toolmakers had carefully selected high-quality volcanic cobbles and struck them into sharp-edged flakes with considerable skill. Continuing support from Gordon Getty and The Leakey Foundation has recently enabled Semaw’s team to expand its efforts beyond the area of its early discoveries. Semaw says, “We have discovered fossil hominins and archaeological materials from key time intervals in human evolution dating as far back as six million years ago, and as far forward as the early Holocene, confirming that Gona is one of the few places in the world where the entire evolutionary history of our ancestors can be investigated. Put simply, the Gona team owes much of our success to the generous and continuous support of Gordon Getty and The Leakey Foundation.”