Kerryn Warren, Ph.D.
University of Cape Town, kerryn.warren@gmail.com
Kerryn Warren
Kerryn Warren is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cape Town. She lectures on archaeology and human evolution. Her research interests include identifying hybridization in the hominin fossil record, stemming from research from her Ph.D., and understanding the evolution of education in South African schools. She is also currently one of the new “Underground Astronauts” selected to excavate Homo naledi remains from the Rising Star Cave System in the Cradle of Humankind. She is passionate about education and science communication.
Lindsay Hunter, Ph.D.
University of Witwatersrand
Lindsay Hunter
Lindsay Hunter is a trained paleoanthropologist who uses her more than 15 years of experience to make sense of the distant past of our species in ways that can help us to build a better future. She received her master’s degree in biological anthropology from the University of Iowa and is completing her Ph.D. in archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has studied fossil and human bone collections across five continents with major grant support from the National Science Foundation (United States) and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. More recently she developed and led the National Geographic “Umsuka” Public Palaeoanthropology Project in South Africa with support from the National Geographic Society and private donors. She now works as the Community Relations and Development Director for the Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA) at UCSD.
Navashni Naidoo, M.Sc.
University of Cape Town
Navashni Naidoo
Navashni Naidoo is a researcher at Nelson Mandela University, lecturing on physical geology. Her research interests include developing paleoenvironmental proxies suited to the African continent, behavioral ecology, and engaging with community-driven archaeological projects. She has excavated at Stone Age sites across South Africa and East Africa.
Silindokuhle Mavuso, M.Sc.
University of Witwatersrand
Silindokuhle Mavuso
Silindokuhle has always been curious about the world around him and how it has been shaped. He is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) conducting palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and change of the northeastern Turkana Basin’s Pleistocene sequence. Silindokuhle begun his education with a B.Sc. (geology, archaeology, and environmental and geographical sciences) from the University of Cape Town before moving to Wits for a B.Sc. Honors (geology and palaeontology) and M.Sc. in geology. During this time, he has gained more training as a Koobi Fora Fieldschool fellow (Kenya) as well as an Erasmus Mundus scholar (France). Silindokuhle is a Plio-Pleistocene geologist with a specific focus on identifying and explaining past environments that are associated with early human life and development through time. He is interested in a wide range of disciplines such as micromorphology, sedimentology, geochemistry, geochronology, and stratigraphy. He has worked with teams from significant eastern and southern African hominid sites including Elandsfontein, Rising Star, Sterkfontein, Gondolin, Laetoli, Olduvai, and Koobi Fora. He plans to extend his knowledge from both parts of the continent to assist the better understanding of how we as humans came to being.
Kimberleigh Tommy, M.Sc.
University of Witwatersrand
Kimberleigh Tommy
Kimberleigh Tommy is currently a Ph.D. candidate in biological anthropology at the Human Variation and Identification Research Unit of the School of Anatomical Sciences at the University of Witwatersrand. Her current research focuses on the evolution and biomechanical implications of bipedal walking through analyses of trabecular bone structure in the joints of the lower limb. Kimberleigh was awarded her Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree with distinction (and no corrections) from the University of the Witwatersrand, specializing in palaeoanthropology and functional morphology in 2018. Her research interests include trabecular structure, functional morphology, primate locomotion, ontogenetic development of gait, biomechanics, and joint pathologies.
Rosa Moll, M.Sc.
University of Witwatersrand
Rosa Moll
Rosa Moll is an archaeology Ph.D. candidate at the University of Witwatersrand. She focuses on Earlier Stone Age core reduction strategies of east Africa and south Africa and received her M.Sc. with distinction in the same field. She is interested in how stool tool technological behaviors correspond with cognitive human evolution. In 2018 she was awarded the Baldwin Fellowship from the Leakey Foundation as part of her Ph.D.
Nomawethu Hlazo, M.Sc.
University of Cape Town
Nomawethu Hlazo
Nomawethu Hlazo is a student at the University of Cape Town currently undergoing her Doctoral Degree. She completed her undergraduate degree in biochemistry and archaeology. Since then her postgraduate studies have focused on the genus Paranthropus and the variation that exists between and within species. Following the fossil species, she has concentrated on the study of geometric morphometrics and will follow new techniques such as paleoproteomics to investigate not only shape change but contributions of evolutionary processes and ecological niches occupied by the genus Paranthropus. Since the start of her research with Paranthropus, she has worked at several sites, not only in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa but also in Kenya. Her research has shown that this genus is highly diverse and more variable than we expected. After completion of her master’s (with distinction), she has been able to show the contributions of both natural selection and genetic drift and their roles in shaping Paranthropus craniomandibular variation.
