An interview with Louise Leakey, from NG.com.

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

All,

Self-explanatory:

Anthropologist Louise Leakey Carries "Family Banner"

Ryan Mitchell
National Geographic News
November 4, 2003

Asked recently about her role in continuing her famous family's tradition of groundbreaking research in paleoanthropology, Louise Leakey's answer was simple enough: "'Big shoes to wear' is another way of putting it."

Leakey has no intention of letting that tradition end. In fact, she has ambitious plans. She is currently organizing the Turkana Basin Research Initiative, a five-year study for which National Geographic is helping to secure funding. A continuous presence at Lake Turkana in Kenya, where her family has worked for decades, will allow scientists to conduct uninterrupted, intensive fieldwork that may help answer some of the more intriguing questions about human origins.

For the full article, CLICK HERE

[Mikey Brass]

Louise Leakey's aim to get more Kenyans involved professionally in archaeology is obviously laudable. It substantially remains a question of money in a country which is extremely poor, and outside scholarship funding can only go so far. Does anyone know if the new Kenyan government is more committed to funding archaeology, in terms of boosting the University of Nairobi's archaeology dept, than its predecessor ?

We started working there in the year 2000 and came up with seven hominid specimens—not all of them were as impressive as some of the ones that we know today. But we did recover a very complete cranium of what actually happens to be the smallest known Homo erectus from east Africa. Last year, we recovered another skull—another cranium that was also incredibly complete… So there are plenty of fossils that are still coming out of the ground.

This is sounding very much like we can expect a number of Leakey co-authored publication to be appearing over the next 4-odd years.