Dr. Louise Leaky
Paleoanthropologist
A third-generation Kenyan paleoanthropologist, Dr. Leakey continues the legacy of the famed Leakey family in the search for human origins in Kenya’s fossil-rich Turkana Basin. A National Geographic Explorer at Large, she is the daughter of Meave and Richard Leakey, and granddaughter of Louis and Mary Leakey. She directs the paleoanthropological expeditions of the Koobi Fora Research Project in northern Kenya, concentrating on the discovery of new hominin fossils from the exploration of deposits between six million and one million years old. She earned a PhD in biology from University College London and is currently a research professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, New York. Dr. Leakey also serves as chairperson of the International Advisory Board of the Turkana Basin Institute, founded by Richard Leakey in 2002.