Richard Leakey, the Kenyan paleoanthropologist and fossil hunter whose discoveries of ancient human skulls and skeletons helped cement Africa’s place as the cradle of humanity, died on 2 January 2022 in Kenya at the age of 77. SEI Africa Communications Coordinator Lawrence Nzuve spoke to Science about Leakey’s impact on his career.
Recognizing that science journalism was also important, Leakey gave me a fellowship to study at Stony Brook University.
Lawrence Nzuve, SEI Africa Communications Coordinator
SEI Africa Communications Coordinator Lawrence Nzuve worked with him for over a decade in northern Kenya. One of Leakey’s most celebrated finds came in 1984 when he helped unearth Turkana Boy, a 1.6-million-year-old skeleton of a young male Homo erectus. Leakey and his team of the “hominid gang” would discover a skull called 1470 found in 1972 that extended the world’s knowledge of the Homo erectus species several million years deeper into the past.
Leakey offered Nzuve a much-coveted fellowship in science journalism at Stony Brook University in the US to study science journalism, one of his many contributions to young people studying in various science disciplines across the world.
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