Leakey Foundation continues support for HERI’s Georgina Luti
The Leakey Foundation has announced its 2024 Francis H. Brown African Scholars will include HERI member Georgina Luti. She joins a cohort of scholars which includes: Ester Lourençoi (Mozambique), Aggrey Omuyangu (Kenya), and Tekie Tesfamichael (Ethiopia).
The award acknowledges their contributions to the study of human origins and their exceptional potential for continued success. It is the third time Luti has been honoured by the Leakey Foundation, which named her a Francis H. Brown African Scholar in 2023 and 2022.
“Georgina's application this year was brilliant which speaks both to the calibre of her work and the excellence she represents in our field," says HERI co-Director Associate Professor Robyn Pickering. "We are proud to have her among our researchers and as a mentor to other young African women in science.”
Studying South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind
Luti is a Kenyan geologist studying for her PhD at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Her research focuses on stratigraphy, dating, and palaeoclimatic reconstruction of the Gondolin and Kromdraai hominin sites in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind.
“My work aims to narrow the period of existence of an endemic hominin in South Africa known as Paranthropus robustus, and to provide a better understanding of the climatic and environmental conditions during that period,” she says.
The work can provide a foundation for conducting a comparative study of a similar hominin found in eastern Africa known as Paranthropus boisei. “My research may help to identify any similarities and differences between the two species,” Luti says.
Currently Luti is carrying out fieldwork, laboratory analyses, and data interpretation to better understand the depositional environments and timelines of these important sites. The Leakey Foundation award will support this work.
“The funding provides valuable financial support to conduct fieldwork at cave sites within the Cradle of Humankind, which have been associated with the recovery of hominin fossils,” Luti says. “It also supports all analytical work that I will conduct in South Africa at UCT’s leading laboratory facilities.”
Advancing Kenya’s geological research
The Leakey Foundation’s Francis H. Brown African Scholarship Fund supports outstanding eastern African students and researchers whose work is focused on the earth sciences or botany related to human origins.
It was named in honor of geologist Dr Francis H. Brown, an eminent geologist who served on The Leakey Foundation’s Scientific Executive Committee for many years. Frank Brown devoted more than five decades to mapping and analyzing the geology of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia, and his work provided a way to place fossil finds in chronological order.
Luti aims to advance contributions to Kenya’s geological and palaeoanthropological research after completing her PhD studies. Specifically, she looks forward to supporting the next generation of African women scholars.
“I have the opportunity to further my studies in the field of my choice thanks to the Leakey Foundation, and I believe there are other funding bodies out there who also want to support young women researchers,” says Luti.
“It may be difficult to find these bodies at first, but we must believe in ourselves and never give up because the work we do matters."