Francis H. Brown African Scholarship | Grants
Stephen Magohe, a geologist and assistant lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, has received a second year of support through The Leakey Foundation’s Francis H. Brown African Scholarship. His project, “From rift-shoulder sediments to paleohabitats: A multidisciplinary investigation of Early Homo habitat at Oldupai Gorge,” focuses on reconstructing the environments early Homo inhabited at the gorge between roughly 2.0 and 0.8 million years ago.
Magohe’s doctoral research at the University of Calgary applies modern sedimentological and stratigraphic methods to understand how landscapes shifted over time at one of the world’s most significant paleoanthropological sites. His research project goes beyond traditional bed-by-bed sediment descriptions. His approach integrates techniques including geochemical tuff fingerprinting, radiometric dating, pollen analysis, drone photogrammetry, and petrography. Together, these methods allow him to trace how environments shifted across the gorge over time, and how those changes may have influenced early human behavior and habitat use.
Since receiving his first year of support, Magohe has completed multiple field seasons across eastern and western Oldupai, measured more than 235 meters of stratigraphic sections, analyzed samples in multiple laboratories, and has presented his results internationally. After completing his PhD, he plans to return to the University of Dar es Salaam to establish a sedimentology and palynology research program focused on Oldupai and other Tanzanian sites. Through his work and his leadership, Magohe is contributing to both national scientific capacity in Tanzania, and long-term research supporting UNESCO’s Ngorongoro Lengai Global Geopark.
The Francis H. Brown African Scholarship is one of The Leakey Foundation’s most prestigious awards, supporting East African researchers and students pursuing work in earth sciences and botany related to human origins. The scholarship honors the legacy of Dr. Francis H. Brown, a geologist whose decades of work mapping the Omo-Turkana basin established the chronological framework underlying much of modern paleoanthropology. Created in partnership with his daughters, Leakey Foundation trustees Erica Brown Gaddis and Elise Brown Ersoy, the scholarship is designed to build scientific capacity in East African institutions and prepare the next generation of researchers to lead investigations on the continent.
Read more about Stephen and his research in our Grantee Spotlight.
