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Louis Leakey
Louis Leakey with his wife Mary in 1962
Born
Louis Seymour Bazet Leakey
(1903-08-07)7 August 1903
Kabete, East Africa Protectorate
Died
1 October 1972(1972-10-01) (aged 69)
London, England
Nationality
Kenyan, British
Known for
Pioneering the study of human evolution in Africa
Spouses
Frida Avern
(m. 1928; div. 1936)
Mary Leakey
(m. 1936)
Children
5, including
Colin Leakey
Richard Leakey
Philip Leakey
Awards
Hubbard Medal (1962) Royal Geographical Society's Founder's Medal (1968) Prestwich Medal (1969)
Scientific career
Fields
Archaeology, paleoanthropology, paleontology
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai Gorge with his wife, fellow palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey. Having established a programme of palaeoanthropological inquiry in eastern Africa, he also motivated many future generations to continue this scholarly work. Several members of the Leakey family became prominent scholars themselves.[1]
Another of Leakey's legacies stems from his role in fostering field research of primates in their natural habitats, which he saw as key to understanding human evolution. He personally focused on three female researchers, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birutė Galdikas, calling them "The Trimates."[2][3] Each went on to become an important scholar in the field of primatology. Leakey also encouraged and supported many other PhD candidates, most notably from the University of Cambridge. As well, Leakey played a role in creating organizations for future research in Africa and for protecting wildlife there.
^"The Leakey Family". The Leakey Foundation. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
^Galdikas, Birute Mary (6 January 2007). "The Vanishing Man of the Forest". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
^Morell, Virginia, "Called "'Trimates,' Three Bold Women Shaped Their Field". Science, Vol. 260, 16 April 1993, pp. 420–425.
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating...
eastern Africa. For much of her career she worked with her husband, LouisLeakey, at Olduvai Gorge, where they uncovered fossils of ancient hominines...
Richard Erskine Frere Leakey was born on 19 December 1944 in Nairobi. As a small boy, Leakey lived in Nairobi with his parents: LouisLeakey, curator of the...
Mary Leakey (1913–1996), archaeologist; wife of LouisLeakey Meave Leakey (born 1942), palaeoanthropologist; wife of Richard Leakey Richard Leakey (1944–2022)...
British paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey in 1972, the same year that her paleoanthropologist grandfather, LouisLeakey, died. She first became actively...
The British/Kenyan paleoanthropologist-archeologist team of Mary and LouisLeakey established excavation and research programs at Olduvai Gorge that achieved...
called Leakey's Angels, is a name given to three women — Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birutė Galdikas — chosen by anthropologist LouisLeakey to study...
Arundell Leakey, clergyman in England. He was a cousin of archaeologists LouisLeakey and Richard Leakey. Leakey's younger brother Rea Leakey served in...
Colin Louis Avern Leakey (13 December 1933, Cambridge, England – 29 January 2018, Lincoln, England) was a leading plant scientist in the United Kingdom...
French at Benenden School. She married LouisLeakey and their first child was a daughter Priscilla Muthoni Leakey. She learnt how to construct archaeological...
wife Katy Leakey, he runs The Leakey Collection, a company exporting products made by Maasai handicrafts. His parents are Louis and Mary Leakey, both famous...
studying for her PhD. At this time, the centre was being administered by LouisLeakey. She received her PhD in zoology in 1968. In 2004, she was awarded an...
of Rwanda, initially encouraged to work there by paleoanthropologist LouisLeakey. Gorillas in the Mist, a book published two years before her death, is...
development. Inspired by the poaching death of a leopard, the anthropologist LouisLeakey motivated Paul Arnold Casey, Jr. of California to breed a domestic cat...
among them are Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of independent Kenya, LouisLeakey and the prolific Gĩkũyũ writer Gakaara wa Wanjaũ and another Gĩkũyũ writer...
telephoned LouisLeakey, the Kenyan archaeologist and palaeontologist, with no other thought than to make an appointment to discuss animals. Leakey, believing...
Turkana. These searches were carried out by the Leakey family, with LouisLeakey and his wife Mary Leakey, and later their son Richard and daughter-in-law...
Lieutenant General Arundell David Leakey, CMG, CVO, CBE (born 18 May 1952) is a former British Army officer. He was Director General of the European Union...
same scholars that attended the Pan African Congress, including LouisLeakey and Mary Leakey, who was delivering a pilot presentation of her typological analysis...
is inspired by anthropologist LouisLeakey to devote her life to the study of primates. She writes ceaselessly to Leakey for a job cataloging and studying...
LouisLeakey was born in Kabete. His nickname was Giteru and hence the reference Kabete gwa Giteru (Meaning Kabete, Giteru's place). The Mary Leakey High...
discovered the fossils of three individuals while expeditioning with LouisLeakey in the vicinity of Lake Victoria. The Consul that he selected to use...
Leonard Leakey Hofstadter, Ph.D., is a fictional character portrayed by Johnny Galecki in the CBS sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. Leonard is an experimental...
590 cc to 710 cc. LouisLeakey, John Napier, and Phillip Tobias were among the first to extensively study the fossils. The Leakey team and others argued...
anthropologist who once worked with famed archaeologist LouisLeakey. (Leonard's middle name is Leakey in consequence.) He was miserable in his marriage to...
couple. After a film he produced as the background to a lecture given by LouisLeakey was seen by a staff member at National Geographic, he was given a retainer...
where the first Oldowan stone tools were discovered by the archaeologist LouisLeakey in the 1930s. However, some contemporary archaeologists and palaeoanthropologists...
Kenyapithecus wickeri is a fossil ape discovered by LouisLeakey in 1961 at a site called Fort Ternan in Kenya. The upper jaw and teeth were dated to 14...
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