Meave Leakey

Meave Leakey
Meave Leakey holding the medal of the City of Toulouse
Born	Maeve Epps (1942-07-28) 28 July 1942 (age 82) London, England
Alma mater	University of North Wales
Spouse	Richard Leakey ​ ​ (m. 1970; died 2022)​
Children	2, including Louise Leakey
Scientific career
Fields	Paleoanthropology
Institutions	Stony Brook University Turkana Basin Institute

Meave G. Leakey (born Meave Epps; 28 July 1942) is a British palaeoanthropologist. She works at Stony Brook University and is co-ordinator of Plio-Pleistocene research at the Turkana Basin Institute. She studies early hominid evolution and has done extensive field research in the Turkana Basin. She has Doctor of Philosophy[1] and Doctor of Science[2] degrees.

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").

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.[1] In 2004, she was awarded an honorary D.Sc. from University College, London,[2] for palaeontology. That same year, she received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[3][4] Leakey is currently a Research Professor for the Turkana Basin Institute (affiliated with Stony Brook University).[5] On 30 April 2013, Leakey was elected as a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, with specialities of geology and anthropology.[6] 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.[7] She was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2017.[8]

Position in the Leakey family

v t e Leakey family tree
James Leakey (1775–1865)[i] Eliza Hubbard Woolmer (1793–1855)[ii] James Shirley Leakey (1824–1871) ^[citation needed] Caroline Woolmer Leakey (1827–1881)[ii] 9 others[ii] Rev. Arundell Leakey (1853–1924) Rev. Harry Leakey (1868–1940) Elizabeth Laing (1873–1925)[iii][iv] Arundell Gray Arundell Leakey (1885–1954)[iii][iv] 5 others Henrietta Wilfrida Avern (1902–1993) Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey[iv] (1903–1972) Mary Douglas Nicol (1913–1996) 3 others Nigel Gray Leakey (1913–1941)[iii][iv] Robert Dove Leakey (1914–2013) Maj. Gen. Arundell Rea Leakey (1915–1999) Agnes Florence Leakey (1917–2006)[iv] Colin Louis Avern Leakey (1933–2018) Meave Epps (b. 1942) Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (1944–2022) Margaret Cropper Jonathan Harry Erskine Leakey (1940–2021) Philip Leakey (b. 1949) Lt. Gen. Arundell David Leakey (b. 1952) Louise Leakey (b. 1972) Emmanuel, Prince de Mérode (b. 1970)
Notes: O'Donoghue, F. M.; Remington, V. (revised) (2004). "Leakey, James (1775–1865), miniature painter". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16244. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) "Eliza Hubbard Woolmer, wife of James Leakey". Artsandculture.google.com. Archived from the original on 6 April 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022. Elizabeth Hubbard Woolmer was born on 20 December 1793. ... On 28 August 1815 she married the artist James Leakey (1775-1865) at St. Sidwell's Church, Exeter (2). They had eleven children. ... Caroline Woolmer Leakey (1827-1881) "Serjeant Nigel Gray Leakey | War Casualty Details". cwgc.org. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2022. NIGEL GRAY LEAKEY ... Died 19 May 1941 Age 28 years old ... Son of Arundell Gray A. and Elizabeth Leakey, of Kiganjo, Kenya. Lean, Mary (26 January 2007). "Agnes Hofmeyr, Worker for reconciliation in Africa". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2022. Agnes Leakey, worker for reconciliation: born Limuru, Kenya 8 May 1917; married 1946 Bremer Hofmeyr (died 1993; one son, and one son deceased); died Johannesburg 1 December 2006. ... Agnes Leakey was born in Limuru, Kenya, in 1917, the youngest child of Gray Leakey, cousin of the anthropologist Louis Leakey, and his first wife, Elizabeth. ... in 1926, when Elizabeth died ... She married a South African colleague, Bremer Hofmeyr, in 1946. ... in ... 1954 ... Mau Mau fighters ... attacked her father's farm, killed her stepmother and abducted her father. ... [he was] buried alive, in a shallow grave on Mount Kenya. ... she lost her eldest brother, Nigel Leakey, in 1941 at Colito, where he won the Victoria Cross. Three years after Bremer's death, in 1993, their elder son, Murray, was killed in a car accident in Johannesburg.

Selected publications

• Rene Bob & Meave G. Leakey (2009), "Ecology of Plio-Pleistocene Mammals in the Omo-Turkana Basin and the Emergence of Homo", in Frederick E. Grine; John G. Fleagle & Richard E. Leakey (eds.), The First Humans: Origin and Early Evolution of the Genus Homo, Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology, Conference publication: Springer, pp. 175–184, ISBN 978-1-4020-9979-3, retrieved 30 April 2010
• Lothagam: The Dawn of Humanity in Eastern Africa by John Harris and Meave Leakey, Eds. (December 2001).
• Leakey, Meave; Walker, Alan (June 1997), "Early Hominid Fossils from Africa", Scientific American, 276 (6): 74–79, Bibcode:1997SciAm.276f..74L, doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0697-74, PMID 9198897
• Stratigraphy and Paleontology of Pliocene and Pleistocene Localities West of Lake Turkana, Kenya by John Harris, Meave Leakey, Eds. et al. (October 1988).
• Harris, J.M; Brown, F.H; Leakey, M.G; Walker, A.C; Leakey, R.E (1 January 1989), "Pliocene and Pleistocene Hominid-Bearing Sites from West of Lake Turkana, Kenya", Science, 239 (4835): 27–33, doi:10.1126/science.239.4835.27, PMID 17820626, S2CID 21225366
• M.G. Leakey, R.E. Leakey, J.M. Harris (editors) (1978), Koobi Fora Research Project: Researches into Geology, Palaeontology, and Human Origins, vol. 1: The Fossil Hominids and an Introduction to their Context 1968–1974, Clarendon Press, ISBN 978-0-19-857392-0 {{citation}}: |author= has generic name (help)

See also

• Meave (Irish name)
• List of fossil sites (with link directory)
• List of hominina (hominid) fossils (with images)

References

1. "Bios: Meave Leakey". Retrieved 21 November 2014.
2. "Honorary Graduates". UCL. Archived from the original on 12 August 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
3. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
4. "2004 Summit Highlights Photo: British paleoanthropologist, Meave Leakey, receives the Golden Plate Award presented by Awards Council member Egyptologist Kent R. Weeks during the Banquet of the Golden Plate Award ceremonies at Chicago's Field Museum". American Academy of Achievement.
5. "Department of Anthropology :: Faculty and Staff :: Turkana Basin Institute". Stony Brook University. Archived from the original on 25 November 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
6. "Member Directory". NAS Online. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
7. "Meave Leakey elected to National Academy of Sciences". Press Release. Stony Brook University. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
8. "American Philosophical Society: Newly Elected - April 2017". Archived from the original on 15 September 2017.

External links

• Leakey Foundation
• Koobi Fora Research Project
• Dr. Meave Leakey Discusses Kenyanthropus platyops
• Turkana Basin Institute