Meave Leakey
British palaeoanthropologist
- 1 min read
- 3 chapters
Related on Lably
Through Kenya and Anthropology
Flat-faced man of Kenya
Leakey's research team at Lake Turkana, Kenya, made a discovery in 1999. They found a 3.5-million-year-old skull and partial jaw thought to belong to a new branch of the early human family. She named the find Kenyanthropus platyops ("flat-faced man of Kenya").
Sign in to keep reading
2 more chapters are free with a Lably account.
Personal life
Leakey was married to Richard Leakey, a palaeontologist. They have two children, Louise (born 1972) and Samira (born 1974). Louise Leakey continues family traditions by conducting palaeontological research.
Leakey initially studied zoology and marine zoology at the University of North Wales. Her first contact with the Leakey family was working for the Tigoni Primate Research Centre while studying for her PhD. At this time, the centre was being administered by Louis Leakey.
She received her PhD in zoology in 1968. In 2004, she was awarded an honorary D.Sc. from University College, London, for palaeontology. That same year, she received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. Leakey is currently a Research Professor for the Turkana Basin Institute (affiliated with Stony Brook University). On 30 April 2013, Leakey was elected as a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, with specialities of geology and anthropology. This made Leakey the first Kenyan citizen and also the first woman citizen of an African country to be elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. She was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2017.